Gulp - Gone and done it now!

[SnappyPix]

Gone and entered for my first official event - a century next weekend!
The event was over-subscribed and myself and a friend managed to squeeze in by the skin of our teeth.
Scary thing is, we've been placed with a team of 20 triathletes (groups are in small packs, as easier to organise), who are supposed to be averaging 12.5mph, but are apparently always champing at the bit to go that bit faster!
I managed 82 miles last weekend, in absolutely torrential rain and horrible conditions. Averaged 14.7mph in 5 and a half hours, so I think I should be ok.
Just have visions of me in amongst all these amazonian goddesses, with my squidgy little body trying hard to catch up!
Just one quick question - I know nothing about the etiquette of pack riding - how do you know when it's your turn to take to the front (especially when it's windy). Don't want to do the wrong thing! Not that I'll be taking the lead much, but want to do my bit if it's expected of me!
Plan to do a couple of 50 milers this weekend to get me going!
Quite excited, but scared too!

[CorsairMac]

Snappy I LOVED your signature line!!......Just too cute!!....as for your ??...sorry kiddo can't do a thing there for ya!....but what I can do is congratulate you on entering your race and wishing you all the best!!.......keeping you in my thoughts, let us know how it turns out!

[slinkedog]

Good for you to sign up and be so brave!!

You may want to let them know this is your first group ride and just never pull on the paceline. Sucking a wheel the whole way sounds good to me!! (Do you feel comfortable being close enough to draft?) You'll know when it's your turn to pull when the person in front of you peels off and you're in front!!! Just watch the line to see how long others are pulling and do the same, or as much as you can do, if you decide to do the paceline thing.

Also, one thing I've learned riding with others is that it's so important to listen to my body and pace myself. It's very easy to try to keep up with stronger riders and then end up with nothing left at the end of your ride, or worse, totally bonk. You go at your own pace and if you can keep up comfortably, great. If not, just keep going!! You're going to have SO much fun!!!

[SadieKate]

I agree with Slinke. If you've never ridden in a pack, you should let them know. They would rather take the time to help you learn and keep everyone upright. Ask a lot of questions, try keep a straight line, don't make sudden moves (including braking) and don't touch the tire in front of you. For a ride of this length, everyone should pull whatever time they feel is right for them. Don't over do it. The other thing, don't sprint off the front when you find yourself in front. I suspect that by the end you'll have the hang of it and pull like a pro, but don't be afraid to say you're new to it. You'll have so much fun with a group of 20 pulling together. It can be a heady experience!

By the way, could you educate us ignorant yanks? Is a century miles or kilometers for you? And, I've always been curious about A and B roads. I read Martha Grimes' novels and I'm never sure what she means when her characters are motoring around the countryside.

[SnappyPix]

Thanks everyone for all your advice - and support!
I've absorbed it all and will follow your wise words.
I don't intend to try and impress, as I know my limits and am aiming to go for stamina, rather than speed, I guess that honesty is the best policy and admitting your gaps in knowledge is far better than behaving as if you know the score and falling flat on your a$$ (quite literally!).

Sadiekate - our roads have a strange and wonderful numbering system, which is a mystery to everyone but the city planners. "A" roads are major roads (often dual carriageways, but not always), while "B" roads are quieter, more rural roads - windy-bendy country roads. Of course, this is not always the norm. The A167 can suddenly metamorphosise into the B123, only to become the A138 and then continue as the A167 as if nothing had happened!
During the war we also took down all our road signs to confuse the Germans if we ever got invaded. Unfortunately, it seems that no-one ever remembered to replace them, so a trip out is often a magical mystery tour!
I kid ye not! We also have "C" roads, but no-one ever talks about them!

A century to me would be miles - 100! Metric? Spit spit, we must resist metric to the death! In the 70s we were all forced in school to suddenly become metric - our currency changed and so did our measurements. I'm now kind of in limbo as I understand centimetres (inches are a mystery!), but can only judge in feet. I understand the bottom half of centrigrade and the top half of farenheit! And our weight is measured in "stones"!! One stone is 14lbs! Everyone usually will express their weight as 8stone 7 or the like, lbs are for our yankie cousins, kilos are for those weird Europeans!

Glad I made all that clear for you!

[snapdragen]

snapdragen wanders off, shaking her spinning head


Snappypix sez: "Glad I made all that clear for you!"

[SadieKate]

Glad I made all that clear for you!

Uh, glad I asked! I'll look forward to my next British who-dunnit and think of you.

[nuthatch]

Gosh, I'd much rather weigh 10 stone than 140 lbs. Sounds so svelte!!! But the fahrenheit/centigrade mix sounds totally confusing. Fahrenheit may be familiar to us but it's totally silly and arbitrary!

Have fun on your paceline!

[MightyMitre]

We also have "C" roads, but no-one ever talks about them!

Yeh - what's a C road when it's at home? I must have been on one at some point. Maybe it's a road that's only one car wide?

Great to hear I'm not the only one who has a confusing mix of metric and imperial. My understanding is as follows:

weight : stones and lbs. It's much easier to loose 2 lbs than a kilogram
distance: miles, unless in Europe when I use kms - 6kms to go is so much more welcome than 6 miles to go.
Inches and feet I get, but couldn't give you an estimate the length of a yard, where as I could easily estimate 100m.
Cooking - easy to roughly guess how much 4 oz of butter is, but have no idea how much 200g looks like.

Eeek - that's seriously confussed.

Anyway, have a great time on you imperial centuary ride. It should be excellent. I agree with the others, if you let them all know you're new to chaingains then they'll all help, but.... hoping not to offend any of the triathletes out there..... there's a bit of an unofficial consensus of oppinion amongst some of the club riders down here that generally triathletes bike handling skills are not all that great, compared to pure cycling roadies. ( Me thinks there could be a bit of snobbery in there. )

But on saying that , most bike legs of a tri are out and back along a straight coned off routes. A lot of triathletes also often put cycling as the discipline they'd most like to improve on. ( BTW - my brother does tri and agrees with me on a lot of this stuff

So, you never know, you might even be able to teach them a thing or two.

TOP TIP for riding in a pace line - keep an ear out for the freewheel clicking on the bike in front of you, as the rider in front eases off. If you do the same it means you won't need to grab for your brakes to slow yourself down.

Best of luck!

[MightyMitre]

Ok - so after being so critical of triathletes bike skills, I think I should mention that my swimming style could be described as 'individual ' and any triathletes out there could swim circles round me any day of the week.

My brother would also agree with me on this too

[SnappyPix]

MM

Thanks for the advice - the event is being organised by a traditional cycling road club, and the bloke in charge has been very disparaging about the group of triathletes, so much so that he keeps trying to persuade me to ride with a different group.
As you say, I think it's pure snobbery on the bike club's part.
No road skills, no team ethos, no idea how to collectively fix a puncture fast, etc. etc. However I did point out to him that a collective group of women will instinctively look out for one another, pull together and work as a team, which is apparently what the leader of the triathletes said to him too!
I'll bear in mind the top tip about the freewheel.

[nuthatch]

Well, I think I've solved the mystery of the C-Road, MM. I watched the Tour of Flanders yesterday (replay with Phil Liggett/Bob Sherwin on OLN here in the US) and those roads the boys were riding HAD to be C-Roads!! They looked no more than 6 feet across in some sections!! Those Belgians had too many bricks on their hands, too - cobblestone everywhere!!

[Adventure Girl]

I thought you couldn't draft in triathlons. Maybe you can in some and can't in others... If drafting is not allowed, then I wouldn't expect the triathletes to train in pace lines much. I agree with what a few others have said here, talk it over with the others before the ride. Find out what their plans are and what they expect from you. And find out what to expect from them!

I have one more tip that I didn't see mentioned before. Don't overlap wheels with the bike in front of you. SadieKate said, "don't touch the tire in front of you." But actually keeping your wheel behind the the one in front is important. If you are overlapped and they move laterally, they may take you down. And if you go down in a pace line, EVERYONE is going to go down!

Good luck!

[MightyMitre]

Hi Nuthatch - wasn't Flanders great, and my fave Tom Boonen won! I was on the edge of my seat as he tore off down the road.

As far as C roads go - you've got it! Perfect example. Thing is, they're not as rare as you might think. My parents live down a lane one car wide and even the larger B road is so narrow in places you have to slow down to pass each other. Not much room on this little island of ours but sure is pretty in the spring when all the hedges start to turn green.

Snappypix - you should have a great day. It's good fun riding in a bunch and you'll be amazed at how much easier it is with a whole load of you for shelter. Enjoy.

Adventure Girl - I believe drafting is allowed in officially recognised triathlons, which I think is a bit daft. It means you might as well do away with the swim as it gives you no advantage, if someone last out of the water is just going to sit on your wheel the whole way round, resting, then beat you in the run.

At the end of the day I s'pose it's all people-on-bikes which has got to be good.

[slinkedog]

My friend who does tons of tri's every year says that drafting is MOST DEFINITELY NOT allowed on the bike. You can't really avoid it on the swim portion, but apparently most events are pretty closely patrolled for drafting violations on the bike. She told me one time what the allowable distance is on the bike, but I can't remember what it was. Blaine (my husband) did a tri with her just two years ago (the Wildflower in central CA) and she did the swim and the run and he did the bike. He said everyone was very good and no one tried to draft off of anyone.

However, that said, a couple of weeks ago Beth (my tri friend) and I were out riding together and we went past (going the opposite direction) her tri team that were out for a training ride, and they were in a huge paceline. There were like 30 of them, I think. So, I guess the rules don't apply for training!!