Originally Posted by RiPHRaPH
would anyone have been dropped if you had not joined that ride? probably not. now, i have been dropped from my fair share of rides when i began cycling. it makes you stronger to ride with someone like you. but if this was a B ride and you tore it in two, then you were the @$$.
in order not to gap anyone, you increase the mph by 0.5 only. you got what you wanted from the ride. not sure what the others were muttering afterwards.
i'm not sure beating up on B riders will prepare you for saturday, but if you are feeling good you should do fine. bring home a good result!!
This ride has a unique history, basically if someone steps up to the plate and pulls hard everyone else does too. This is not a beginner ride by any means (it is not the A ride, but they get about 2 - 3 perople max and go about 2 MPH faster so I do not bother), it is kind of a B+ ride. At the beginning one guy took the role of pace making, he was pulling about 22 MPH the whole time in the front. When someone sets the bar around there it is the goal to just push to stay up. In the past this has been a very competative ride, 2 intermediate sprints, lots of fast close paceline work, etc.
Two months ago some of these guys were kicking my a$$, but I did not go out there expecting to return the favor. In the past it was normal for me to go out there, kill myself in the pacelines, take my pulls and have a good hard night. When you ride with a group for a long time, lay off for a few months doing solo training, sometimes it is not apparent how much you have improved until you go and ride with your old group again. If a few more of the fast guys would have come out it would have turned into another of those fast and furious run to the city limits type of rides as usual. I was putting in about the same effort as I would have done 2 months ago but I had improved but everyone else has not.
I think the answer to the question is if you are new to the group, hang out and try not to dictate the pace. Unfortunitly for me it is like sitting in the middle of the pack in a crit, if I am not working I feel like we should be going faster, so off the front I go. Last night I was sitting in at 22 MPH not even breaking a sweat in the paceline, and when I tried and form the line again at the top (after no one wanted to go to the front) I ended up again off the front.
I do not enjoy beating up on the B guys, I have just moved beyond a B/B+ ride speed. Will riding with this group make me ready for Saturday no, but I have never felt this strong in a very long time, and that is why I feel good about Saturday. I have a few hard days left this week (specifically anther hill interval session on Thursday with sprints) and my power levels tell me I am ready. Am I ready to win the race, only conditions will tell but this course favors my abilities, fast and flat.
What I find funny is how such a hill that I would dread just 3 months ago looks like a flat peice of land now... and how I can pound it up at 20 MPH and feel great at the top. I guess I am improving... Now peaking on June 26th... another story!