Seven of us met to ride this morning at 11am from the Scholars Inn Bakehouse. All were riders from the Scholars Inn Bakehouse team including: Fred, Gary, Tom, Liz, Sarah, Carl and Aaron (Prange). It was 34 degrees when we left our steaming coffee, tea and the warmth of the Bakehouse, stuffing half of our muffins into our jacket pockets. Early forecasts indicated that the sun would come out at some point, but it never made an appearance. Due to some local road flooding, we settled on a 100k route that would take us clockwise east on 45 through Bear Wallow, Nashville and Owl Creek then home on South Shore. A steady headwind met us most of the way out and Fred and Gary kindly did yeomen’s work pulling us for over 20 miles. Most of our riding was two-by-two so we had a lot of opportunity to get to know each other better. I bring this up because, now IS the time to spend time with your teammates in a cycling environment that’s more socially interactive than the racing that we’ll be doing shortly. Also, here was an opportunity to ride 60 miles in the relative comfort of a group and pull only as long as you want to. Today, Categories 2, 3, 5 and Women were represented in this small group and, except for some moderately explosive moments where the tempo picked up into Nashville, we averaged about 18 mph for the bulk of the ride. Except for the temperature, you would have enjoyed it.
So, if you’re not racing, join our weekend rides and get to know your mates. We’ll be hitting it hard at the Wednesday Worlds soon, which start in 10 days. You’ll have little time to utilize your strengths in a team setting if you’re not ready for the challenge. Will you be ready when the racing starts?