Good Group Ride Last Night
 

Usually I bring up the rear of the group on our Thursday night rides. Don't know if it was the cooler weather, the pace was slower than normal or, I am actually becoming a stronger rider.
In any case I was at the rear and suddenly felt like I just wanted to move up. Spent most of the ride just to the rear of the ride leader. Even the hills seemed easier. To make things even more surprising I was on my old '78 Fuji 12 speed!

Congrat's Sometimes you are just stronger than other times!

Yes, group rides are good for you! I have been doing more group riding while on temporary assignment here in Victoria, BC. All the group rides are with racing clubs sponsored by bike shops to which everyone is invited to ride, so they tend to be mostly young guys on carbon fiber bikes, some even ride with their cf racing wheels, go figure. So I'm doing group rides three or four times a week. Last evening's ride was with a small group out of a shop in Langford, where most of Victoria's big box stores are located. We did one of the hillier rides, and by hilly I mean some of the hills are 10% or more grades. Fortunately they are not too long, so I can usually catch the group when they stop at the next intersection, since I'm on the 44x16 fixie. They don't like to wait too long, so if you're too far behind they leave you to die...

Although I'm no longer racing, all this group riding - especially with just the fixie - has definitely made me a much stronger rider this year. The hills I struggle up slowly on my own, I'm flying up with the group. Must be more adrenalin when you're with other guys.

I must say, though, that my favorite group ride is the easy Sunday ride with guys my own age. They're not constantly attacking!

Luis

I think thats GREAT!! Sometimes all the stars are in order. Sometimes not. It's always good to have a really good ride.

@ Luis, Attack the pack!!!!

Once your are able to stay in the pack - life gets a lot easier. Good job - now you can work on taking a turn or two as the lead dog.

Time for a drug test???

That's how it happens. One day you're the back marker, then comes that ride where suddenly you're one of the powers pulling the line.
Don't be dissappointed if you have a couple more rides where you struggle because you will certainly have more where you're one of the lead bikes.