In the Crucible: The Pleasure and Pain of a Hard Group Ride

Last year I regularly rode the Flanders Bros. Saturday "Coffee Ride" -- roughly 40 miles at a respectable pace of 18-20 mph. That's pretty fast for a so-called "social ride." When my wife began road biking earlier this year, she joined a club that rode on Saturdays, so I had change my routine. The Flanders Sunday ride is a longer, harder ride that typically covers 60-120 miles at a faster pace (20-24 mph average). It was a big step up for me to try to keep up with these guys, but it's been a lot of fun trying.

As you'll recall from previous posts, my wife had a major accident on her bike this spring, which limited my availability to ride on the weekends for a while. Fortunately her recovery has proceeded well ahead of her doctors' expectations, allowing both of us to ride quite a bit lately.

Up until yesterday I'd taken the mid-length option (about 100 miles) during the half dozen or so Sunday rides I've joined. There's a turn-off point midway into the Sunday ride that roughly half the group takes, which makes for about a 65-mile route. Then there's the "La Sueur" loop -- 120 miles of pain and suffering (at least for the mortals in the group like me). I hadn't had an opportunity to try it until yesterday.

The ride started fairly innocently, with a moderately fast pace around 20 mph as we headed out. One of the riders was having trouble with a bad bearing in the rear wheel hub so we got a bit of a slow start, actually stopping at another rider's house to pick up a spare wheel. It was then that the ride began in earnest. I think some in the group were frustrated with the slow start and wanted to make up for lost time. In any event, the screws began tightening.

Pacelining
I was feeling pretty good during the initial series of pacelines. For those new to the sport, pacelines are single or double-file lines where the lead rider(s) take a few minutes "pulling" up front before peeling off to the rear to rest (riders up front expend roughly 20-40% more energy compared to those behind; thus the benefits of drafting).

Then I got caught up front during a fast stretch with "Alex" -- a big and very strong German chap who probably eats little guys like me for lunch (actually, he's a pretty nice fellow but he's not afraid to drop weaker riders). I kept up pretty well for the first few minutes, as we powered along a gradual descent at 30 mph. But he clearly didn't want to go to the back until I asked for mercy. Fortunately one of the other power riders sprinted up to the front and took over before slowing the group to let a rider who'd experienced a mechanical issue hook back on.

Reverse-Pacelining
I realize now that I should have swallowed my pride and moved to the back sooner. I burned through a lot of energy in just a few minutes trying to power through this section. Over the course of our 6 hour-ride, I took my fair share of time in front, and sat in on a little over half of the reverse-paceline rotations (during reverse pacelining, the last rider pulls out and rides alongside the single file group to take the lead position). Moreover, I felt quite good during the last third of the ride, even sitting in on some fast rotations that involved three of the strongest riders (the rest of the group opted out and sat on on the back as we drove the pace).

One thing that really helped me during this long ride was forcing myself to eat enough. I have my wife to thank for this. She's much more disciplined than I am and actually reads books about cycling (with big words and not a lot of pictures) whereas I tend to read books about politics and history (which haven't seemed to help my bike skills much).

Fueling
Since I'd been able to keep up on the 100-mile training rides I felt that whatever I was doing was working. Fortunately, about a week or so ago she calculated how much food I should be consuming during my rides and determined I was eating less than half of what I really needed. I always seemed to carry enough food with me (energy bars and gels) but often returned with most of it uneaten. So, after a few hard pulls up front (and at least once every hour) I'd eat a bar and/or a gel. As a result, I felt much stronger at the end of the ride than I have in the past.

When I looked down at my bike computer near the end of the ride I could hardly believe it. Even though we'd had to slow down and briefly stop several times due to mechanical problems our average was 21.5 mph. Without these stoppages we probably would have averaged 22+. And amazingly I felt strong at the end.

But here's the real high point: Near the end of the ride, about 115 miles in, two riders, independent of one another, rode up next to me and told me I rode well. One rider in particular, who kind of took me under his wing early in the season, said it was probably the hardest training ride of the year. "You looked real good today, Fred," he said. "Real good."

For someone who just started riding with the "A team" this year, those words meant a lot. Sure, they might be simply trying to encourage me along as a newer member, and they did give me some good ribbing for overdressing for the weather, but I'll take it at face value. When you're riding with guys with as much race experience as these, you need to take every compliment you get.