Ride Recap

Awesome weather predicted for tomorrow. Hydration, hydration, hydration! As there's a stage race in Portage La Prairie some of the group will be there instead.

Nicest weather yet for the June 13th ride. It started off a little cool and cloudy, but was beautiful by the end. 34 riders (4 new riders) took part. We divided into two groups in Lockport, an up tempo and a down tempo group. In a bit of a surprise 24 riders chose the fast group over the gentler paced group. For the up tempo group the pace after the big bridge averaged 40-44 kph in calm conditions. For the stronger riders the pace was reasonable if a bit easy. For others it was manageable though challenging; overall a good balance for everyone. New members Ryan and Sarah fit in really well with the faster group.

The best way to ride in a group depends on how strong you are relative to the others in your group. This group was tight because the strongest riders took longer pulls, the moderate riders took shorter pulls, and those who were really challenged just pulled through and immediately moved off the front to the back of the group. Ideally, when riding two by two riders will be fairly equal in strength and therefore pull the same length of time, but that is not always the case. If one or two riders are far stronger than most of the group, it is acceptable for the stronger rider to remain at the front when the other rider pulls off and for the person in the second row to carefully move forward to fill the empty spot.

The down tempo group was not quite so tight. Most felt the pace was too gentle. This is sometimes a challenge for FOG. Although we welcome new riders, it must be remembered that FOG is a FAST club ride. We are not a slow group ride, or easy group ride, or recovery ride, or social ride, or touring ride. Those are all fine, but that is not what FOG is. For most cyclists the FOG ride will be beyond their ability.

How difficult a ride will be for any single rider depends on a number of different factors so it is difficult to give black and white refernce points, but it has been suggested that you should be able to ride on your own at 30 kph to be able to handle the slowest part of the FOG ride. We are open to helping riders become comfortable with drafting and riding in a group and therefore we hold the early part of our ride to 30 kph. You must realize though that if you stop for some reason and someone pulls you back to the group, although you will be able to draft off of that rider you’re going to be expected to now ride at 38-40+ kph to catch up. After Lockport the pace also picks up; the slow group will AVERAGE about 35 kph, the regular group about 38+ kph, and the fast group 40-45 kph. Sometimes, as happened last week, there may be a slow-regular group, and a regular-fast group with speeds in between.

For riders new to FOG and group riding a good plan is to ride with the group until Lockport and then head back to the Legion. After a few weeks of gaining group riding skills you may have the confidence and ability to go on longer/faster rides with the group. Of course you are also welcome to continue riding after Lockport, but the group cannot continue with the slower pace. If we did that just once for each rider every single FOG ride for the next two years would be affected.