Road Cycling - First group ride, wow!

I live in a small town and there is only 1 organized small group of riders here. I know all of them and have ridden with a few of them in pairs only. They have invited me several times to their morning rides, but I never had the guts to show up. They have a reputation for being very fast and unforgiving. They are all such great guys off the bike, I just had to show up once, that was 3 weeks ago. They ride from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays. I have been back 3 times now. They are so fast, we took off at a liesurley 20 mph for 10 min., then they got into a line and ramped up to 25 mph going into a state park. We were riding about 10 inches off each others wheel around all these curves in the park and camp ground. This was constantly interupted with sprints that everyone new about exept me (they always dropped me on these)
but would wait up after the sprint. When we left the park it was 27 mph for about 5 miles, then they yelled back to me to pull in closer and hang on they said they were going to ramp it up!!!!! They were going 31.3 (but I didn't know at the time because I was to scared to look at anything exept the wheel 6 inches in front of me, I figured it out by my max speed when I got home). They of course dropped me several times during the 3 times I have went with them and when I get to the second place of the pace line the #3 guy always pulls the line around me so I don't have to pull, I always just stay on the wheel of the biggest guy there (best draft, I figured that out fast, just for survival). It scares me to death and my legs are jelly all day and my heart rate hits max several time each day. But I am walking on air all day afterward on cloud 9. My ego has taken some huge hits, but that is about the most fun I have had in my life. I know that sounds sick, but going that fast on the flat is so cool! Here is a list of bikes in this group.
2 - Colnago C40, 1 - Specialized S works, 1 - Serotta Ottrott, 1 - Lightspeed Vortex, Trek 5900, Trek 5200, Merlin Extralight, Giant TCR 0, all have Dura-Ace exept for Merlin has Ultegra and 5200 has Ultegra

what do you ride?

Sounds like a blast-I usually draft a wheel chair for excitment.

Hope you didn't forget to take in fluids during the ride.... Kinda scary at first trying to reach down for the bottle when you in fast tight formation...

I live in a small town and there is only 1 organized small group of riders here. I know all of them and have ridden with a few of them in pairs only. They have invited me several times to their morning rides, but I never had the guts to show up. They have a reputation for being very fast and unforgiving. They are all such great guys off the bike, I just had to show up once, that was 3 weeks ago. They ride from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays. I have been back 3 times now. They are so fast, we took off at a liesurley 20 mph for 10 min., then they got into a line and ramped up to 25 mph going into a state park. We were riding about 10 inches off each others wheel around all these curves in the park and camp ground. This was constantly interupted with sprints that everyone new about exept me (they always dropped me on these)
but would wait up after the sprint. When we left the park it was 27 mph for about 5 miles, then they yelled back to me to pull in closer and hang on they said they were going to ramp it up!!!!! They were going 31.3 (but I didn't know at the time because I was to scared to look at anything exept the wheel 6 inches in front of me, I figured it out by my max speed when I got home). They of course dropped me several times during the 3 times I have went with them and when I get to the second place of the pace line the #3 guy always pulls the line around me so I don't have to pull, I always just stay on the wheel of the biggest guy there (best draft, I figured that out fast, just for survival). It scares me to death and my legs are jelly all day and my heart rate hits max several time each day. But I am walking on air all day afterward on cloud 9. My ego has taken some huge hits, but that is about the most fun I have had in my life. I know that sounds sick, but going that fast on the flat is so cool! Here is a list of bikes in this group.
2 - Colnago C40, 1 - Specialized S works, 1 - Serotta Ottrott, 1 - Lightspeed Vortex, Trek 5900, Trek 5200, Merlin Extralight, Giant TCR 0, all have Dura-Ace exept for Merlin has Ultegra and 5200 has Ultegra


Where in Nebraska do you ride? Omaha? I've ridden with my brother and sister-in-law out west on Dodge road out to some state park. It's a great long mostly flat ride.

I am the one with the Merlin Extralight w/ultegra, I bought the frame on ebay new and built it up myself this winter. I used Bontrager Race X Lites, Ouzo pro fork, and Mellenium stem and bars and still kept the cost under 2500.00, and I am very proud of it. The frame was brand new but a few years old, it does not have the hidden headset that the new Extralight has.

I live in Fremont, about 30 miles west of Omaha and the ride is all flat.

that's flying! sounds like some of the races i've seen.

I can't believe how often and how long these guys ride over 25 mph. I only go with them on wednesdays, but they go out and do this every week day and then a longer slower ride on saturday (50 miles) and 40 miles on Sunday. But Sunday it is very fast for the whole 40 miles. They politely suggested I stay away from that ride until I get faster because they don't wait on Sundays.

Here is a list of bikes in this group.
2 - Colnago C40, 1 - Specialized S works, 1 - Serotta Ottrott, 1 - Lightspeed Vortex, Trek 5900, Trek 5200, Merlin Extralight, Giant TCR 0, all have Dura-Ace exept for Merlin has Ultegra and 5200 has Ultegra

Hope you don't do what I do. I spend most of the time checking out all the bikes, no matter what speed they're going. Sometimes there will be some guy bustin' his balls trying to keep up, and I'll say: "wow, nice bike, buddy", and they look at me like I'm an idiot.

Man, one guy had a dark blue Coppi with white decals.....I couldn't stop looking at it :D

Reading this, I realize how far I have to go. When I cruise at 20, I catch myself thinking I'm the mack daddy.

Guess not. Oh well. :D

I'm impressed. The guys on that ride sound pretty cool to newer, slower riders.

I ride in Omaha when I'm there. I'd be interested to know more about the specifics of the ride for next time I'm there. My brother-in-law lived in Freemont until recently and my sister-in-law lives in Omaha and the rest of my wife's family lives northwest of Freemont, so I'm around there quite a bit.

Wow! I have yet to get there, dont like riding with other cyclists but I know I have to sooner or later. How did you build up the guts to ask them?

When you go with a fast group you will be surprised how much harder you can push yourself. I almost always rode alone for the last 2 years, I thought I always pushed myself to get better, but my legs never felt sore for the next 8 hours after I rode, until I went with these guys. I ofter would ride to Lincoln, (50 miles) and feel fine, this ride is only 22 miles and I am toast. The good thing is that they ride in a Park, and there is alot of ways to get dropped and then take a short cut to catch up. They always ride the same route. By the way, these are not young kids, they are all about 40 years old with me being the oldest at 45 and the youngest being 35.

Not a bunch of rich guys with 5k bikes that don't use them, they are a bunch of rich guys with 5k bike that use the crap out of them 6 days a week.

Awesome. Sounds like my wednesday ride during the summer..... I have yet to hang on for all 3 laps (27km) I even struggled to hold on during the warm up lap...... not this summer! I'm gonna be ready I reckon. Lots of intensity work. ROLL ON SUMMER!

Where in Nebraska do you ride? Omaha? I've ridden with my brother and sister-in-law out west on Dodge road out to some state park. It's a great long mostly flat ride.

I've been to Nebraska. Is there anything BUT long, flat rides ;)

If you look you can find plenty of hills, at least until you get the western half of the state where it is very flat. Where I live it is very flat because we are in the Platte River valley.

Is the park you ride in Two Rivers?

No, it is called the Fremont State Lakes, it is 20 small lakes with black top roads around them. Not all that big but bigger then 2 rivers park. Some of the route is on the way to the park going by Hormel Park. This last Wed. I think I suffered my first true large bonk. my heart rate was max 171, and stayed there, my legs were both cramped and wouldn't go over 15 mph. The boys were fired up because one of the guys came with a new bike, it was a Felt Time Trial bike with Zipp wheels and Dura-Ace 10 speed and they thought they needed to show him that it was not about the bike but about the engine, so they started out very fast and I bonk right away when I was trying to get my heart rate down I checked my max speed and it said 32.4. So that was the top speed the pace line reached on the way to the park. Evidentaly to fast for me.