In spite of quite strong winds, 30 riders turned up at the Market Square for Sunday's club runs. The snow and ice had disappeared to be replaced with relatively mild but windy weather. What a great turnout for December!
Welcome to Terry who joined us for the first time, but who has experience of Go-Ride and who is keen to be involved with our new project.
With this many riders we decided to split into three groups by making a Group 2a and a Group 2b as we would have had over 20 in Group 2 otherwise. The route took us out westwards, initially along the Bushmead Road and it was quite hard work all the way out to Bolnhurst via Wilden and the Kimbolton Road. Mark was keen to introduce through and off to the group, so after a short briefing the group had several goes at it. It is usually used for group riding when the hammer is down, for example chain gangs or road race breakaways. The problem with trying to ride through and off at a modest pace is that the speed keeps creeping up till you are hammering. So we soon reverted to our usual steady group riding method - two on the front. Nevertheless, it's good for people to be introduced to various group riding techniques. This week coming, it's echelons from gutter to gutter.
Both Group 2s headed up to Pertenhall and then turned left along the Swineshead Road. Heading up towards Dean and Hargrave, our new rider, Terry, broke a spoke in his rear wheel, and not long after he decided to head home. Just outside Raunds we turned round to head south and joined the Sportive route down to Covington. The rolling road into Covington seemed much harder than it seemed going north on Sportive day. From Covington we headed down to Kimbolton and then back via Pertenhall and the Bushmead sprint. A bit over 40 miles at a decent winter pace.
The Group 1 guys went a bit further, a bit faster and on a somewhat different route and covered about 50 miles.