The Canadian monday nighter

I went on that group ride that i was looking at. The monday night ride out of Collins in Eugene OR is really where i fell in love with road biking. It is a group of great riders having a great time. There are fun little sprints, and after each one we collect and roll back out all together as a group. Just a fantastic experience.

This was strangley familiar and different, more strange just because people kept saying Monday night ride, and in my head that is the name of a ride in Eugene, not just the night that a group ride falls on.

Latley i have just been riding around stanley park all by myself, which is fine i guess. Its 32K there and back if you go around it three times, which is a good fast work out distance, but Since i am alone it is really easy to just kind of give up. Take an extra cog up the hill, back it off a little on the flats, stuff that just makes you lame and slow.

Anywho, so in an attempt to work that all out i found this novice/intermediate ride that goes out of the local pro shop La Bicicletta. I figured the intermediate level sounded about right, they described it as averaging somewhere around 30kph in the flats which is generally what i pull, and i figure as long as we aren't doing any huge hill climbing i should be fine.

I show up to the shop and there are several people there that have never done the ride before. Good sign i figure, bunch of people giving it a shot for the first time, no way this is going to be too crazy heavy. One of the new people is this girl that doesn't have clipless shoes and hadn't bought a water bottle yet. Bam, done. I figure this is going to be a walk in the park. No pun intended (you'll get that in a second)

Another reason i wanted to go on the ride was to find out new routs that people take to mix up my more normal routine. Turns out we are just heading down to Stanley Park to do three circuits. Which i was also fine with, because at least i knew i could do it. So the whole group rolls through down town to the Park. Nothing particularly interesting, keeping it tight through traffic, stop lights. etc. etc. And we get to the Park. The ride leader calls out "ok, so if any of the intermediates want to pick up the pace, just sprint up front and take off, we will see you later"

People are dropping cogs, starting to pass me, and I think to myself "man, it would be kind of nice to stick with the novices. Hang out, roll easy, the girl didn't know she could break from the hoods so she was spending all her time in the drops. Maybe just help her out. Maybe you should just take it easy this first time". But then another voice in my head said "pussy"

I dropped cogs.

30kph average in the flats my rear derailer.

My cycling computer wasn't working so i don't know what we were pulling at, but i know what 30 feels like and that wasn't it. I don't know what it was, who started it, but all of sudden we weren't laden with the social obligation of the novices. There was no reason to be checking in with everyone any more, any one that got dropped would just be swept by the slower group behind us. We flew.

And i kept up, for the most part until the hill. Flats are my thing. I have big legs with big muscles. Hills are not my thing. I have a big belly with a lot of beer fat. The first two times i was able to at least keep them in sight and then catch them up on the down hill (thank you physics). The last time they waited for me. It was nice of them, I'm not sure if that was acceptable or not. The website says it was a no drop ride, so even though i felt a little weird, no one said anything.

All i know is that it is exactly what i need. My legs were pretty much there 100%. Not counting the big ass hill, which is another matter. But i wouldn't have pushed myself if i hadn't been grabbing wheels and sucking draft.

I plan to go back. Perhaps more than just the monday nighter. We shall see.