CTS Rides

[lauraelmore1033]

http://www.bikesclub.org/html/mcclinchy/mcclinchy.htm
A fundraiser for our local club. We're doing the 47 miler.

[XMcShiftersonX]

Aww that looks like a nice and fun ride! I thought about doing the ride around puget sound, so it would have been nice had I known earlier, although I am trying to save money right now, so it probably wouldn't have been in the cards this year. It's relieving to know that it's someone's name, and not an indication of how you're body will feel after doing a whole bunch of hills or something though! It's too bad that the person it's named after, died early in life. Do you know what happened to him?

[lauraelmore1033]

I don't know anything about Stuart McClinchy. Googling the name just brings up previous mentions of the ride in his honor. Hmmm. i hadn't made the connection between Clinchy and the way a hard ride might make one feel, but now that you mention it, that seems fairly obvious.

Of course, you could always do the ride on your own. The maps are available on line and the course markings will remain for some time...

[XMcShiftersonX]

Okay, so I'm off to do the first CTS ride of the season... I'm hoping the green group is the right fit! I'm a little nervous, this will be my first big group ride. If anyone does end up coming I'm wearing a turquoise craft jersey, black assos shorts, and I'll be on my white and pink Orbea. I hope you ladies have fun on the other rides you're doing today!

[XMcShiftersonX]

Okay! So, I went on the ride and it was great! I did the green group, and I actually kind of felt like I could have gone faster. I don't know if it's because it was the first ride of the season or what. Going out to Seward Park we intentionally were going slower like 14-15mph I guess to let people warm up etc. On the way back it was a little faster, and I kept getting caught in the back part of the group just based on where I was standing in line and being separated by cars, etc. so then I would have to sprint at like 19mph to get back up to the rest of the group, but that wasn't a problem. I'm used to doing the distances we did, so it may get a little more challenging once our rides are up in the 40-50mile range. But I was actually thinking that maybe I would be okay in the blue group of the CATS team. It was an okay workout, but I didn't really feel challenged at this point. You're just constantly slowing down for stop signs, cars, etc. I'm nervous to make this jump though, because people were talking about how "hardcore" the CATS people are etc. I'm worried that I will try it on a ride, and get left behind. But I am usually going faster than what we were doing today. Any advice from experienced CTS/CATS people?

Thank You!

[lauraelmore1033]

Hmmm, they must be seriously enforcing the pace guidelines. Last year in yellow group we were going 16-18 mph on the flats for that ride to Seward Park. The rides got a lot hillier pretty quickly, so the pace on the flats didn't really matter after that... I don't have a recomendation--especially since I am so slow that moving up to cats would be inconceivable. If you do make the leap, make sure you've printed out the map and have enough water and tools and tubes etc...

The rides will definitely get more challenging. Maybe give it a while? When DH rode with the green group they broke up into a fast green and a slow green. Maybe they'll do that again.

[XMcShiftersonX]

Okay! Those are good things to think about. Maybe it was just a little slower because it was the first ride of the series, they probably wanted to ease in to it a bit. There were 60 people in the green group and it had to be broken into three groups of 20. So maybe just the sheer number of people slowed it down too! It may also calm my nerves to stay in the green group for now, being that this is the first year I've even done big group rides like this. Like I said, I was nervous this morning before I even got there, not knowing what it was going to be like or if the group would be too fast. So, I'll stick with it, once we get in to hills I'll probably need to be there anyways! Thanks for all your advice along the way

-Jessica