You Dont Have To Be A Bike Racer To Ride With Them

My friend Regina has been hounding me to participate in a Tuesday morning ride and up until this week, I always had an excuse to bail. This week, however, I decided to give it a try as I knew the group would be small, all Masters, and as such the potential for a super ride experience was very high. I think most people have hunkered down the last six months to see what economic curve balls would be thrown at us and I was no exception. Well, enough is enough! The weekend rides are getting faster and longer and there is no time like the present.

I had three observations during this ride. First, riding with proficient Masters cyclists is very smooth. Everyone was at least a decent bike handler, but all looked where they were going and made real attempts to ride in a straight line. Second, my Fountain of Youth theory got some major support as I was dropped by a 74 year young cyclist on a longish hill. At 52, it was a great vision for the future, because if George can do it, so can I. Finally, I got to see Regina do some outstanding riding with people that were faster than her and this is the basis of my story today.

Regina has been friends with Toni and me for almost a decade. I saw her get her first Colnago and learn how to ride as an adult. She has always been super fit, but had never learned to ride a bike as a youngster. As such, Regina had to overcome significant fears of the unknown and faced these fears as an adult and mother who "knows better."

Knowing that you can take a horse to water but can't make them drink, I continually spoke to Regina about learning the tricks of the proficient road cyclists. With the power to weight ratio that a petite yet strong woman would have, Regina learned that she quickly could out climb many men, yet had not learned how to channel this strength and power to make her rides more enjoyable. I think this is the way everyone approaches riding with a group as opposed to riding alongside a group of cyclists. I see this pattern many times with triathletes who are riding in a group. They have the potential and the raw skills yet have not actualized them in this context.

The breakthrough on this ride was quite simple, really. I was riding alongside Regina when we were in the middle of a 3/4 mile climb and the two people in front of us picked up the pace. (Yes, George was one of them!) As a small gap opened, I knew that I could not respond but asked Regina to close the gap. I got passed by two people at the same time and Regina passed one of them, grabbed the wheel on the next guy, then jumped up to George's wheel, and finally leapfrogged him to crest the hill with Roberto, the leader!

Regina looked fantastic and was really not spending more energy than before, but used that energy wisely. She interacted with the group rather than just riding her pace, regardless of the speed of the peloton. This "letting go" of individuality to join the peloton is a huge step. The possibilities for rapid improvement are significant now.

This is the reason I encourage triathletes to get their road bike out once a week and ride with a group a little faster than they. This way the intensity of the group can create an incentive to push way beyond one's perceived limits. This is almost impossible to recreate when riding alone.

The lesson here is, Regina wanted to be in control of her pace despite what the group did, and she finally "broke the code" to discover that she doesn't lose anything by joining the pack but does gain another perspective and the ability to ride with many more people without trouble.

Triathletes typically don't draft when racing and I think they miss out on a lot of learning and range building by avoiding this on the bike. If you run with the fast runners, swim with the fast swimmers and ride with the fast cyclists, good things happen. Regina proved that though she has never raced, the tricks the racers use can and do make a big difference in the enjoyment of riding a bicycle well.