Hal: Before this ride started, Dave Bender circulated a note about how a group was consistently forming out of the ones dropped from the A ride at some point and how about trying to make that official. I thought this ride was partly the result of that - my apologies if I'm wrong. As such, I expected the group to be a bit stronger than the pace indicated.
However, I enjoyed the ride as far as distance and pace and will vote for leaving it as it is - ~75 miles is a bit long for me. Mark --- On Mon, 8/10/09, Hal Marcus <[email protected]> wrote: From: Hal Marcus <[email protected]> Subject: [Gyros: 13750] last saturday's A- B+ ride reflection--IMPORTANT reading To: [email protected] Date: Monday, August 10, 2009, 7:13 AM This is long, but important for the future of this ride. >From my perspective it was a great ride and then I thought about it. It was supposed to be in the mid to high 18s and it finished in the mid 19s--5% faster than posted. Some people are out there to push their abilities up to the 18s and that 5% faster would be a killer. At the finish it was obvious that we, I, had dropped a handful--hopefully they were picked up by Maria. At the rest stop no one came to me complaining about the pace, but I, as the leader, did not check with everyone. After the rest stop only about 1/3 of the people were still able to pull--I took that as a sign that people were biking smart and drafting, but maybe I should have seen it as people hanging on for life. After hills, I went to the front to slow the pace down until I heard all back on. I never heard people yelling that they were being gapped or falling off the pace. I thought we were altogether when we hit Old Weaver, but now I doubt it. On the hills of Weaver we broke up--I was not concerned for 2 reasons--it is a gyro tradition to break up towards the end and the stronger riders 'race' in and Ed was back there to help the 2nd group (turns out Tim was also there, but I did not realize that at the time). At the end of Weaver at New Light I was asked if we should hold up--I said no (because of the above reasons)--maybe this isn't a group that should break up at the end. We are a stronger group than I originally had thought we would be--in part this is because several A riders like the 1/2 hour extra sleep and the shorter distance. Also the strong riders that use to go out with the A's and cut it short are now going with us and cutting it short. Starting with about 20 riders with almost 1/2 of them capable of A riding makes it a strong group. We are now riding at last years A pace and we are capable of increasing the speed. As I said, not what I envisioned for this group. Now the question--should we back it down to the high 18's or leave it where it is? Another possibility, when we are a big group, is to split into 2 smaller groups at the rest stop with a secondary leader. This is a club that is designed to serve all riding levels, not just the A's. Opinions before we post next Saturday's ride. Hal Marcus Pro-Active Management A Profit Enhancement Organization 8125 Glenbrittle Way Raleigh, NC 27615 Cell 919-395-9989 Office 919-845-2478 [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you foolishly subscribed to the Gyro email group. To post useless drivel to this group, send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] We love reading 3000 line messages so please don't bother trimming your replies. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
