Alberton _ JHB South Riders

[Guest Agteros]

Agteros' date=' which race are you doing?[/quote']

 

Doing Carousel on Monday (from C)

 

In two weeks time I'm doing the one at Sun City...

[Andyr249]

I am also doing Carousel. Riding with Trubie in A. Hope to meet up afterwards!

[Slave]

Just to recap the weekend plans, Trubie and I are meeting at his place to do Voortrekker, Silver Ball, Rifle Range, Columbine, Lido hill (Down) and the Allewynspoort loop.

There are three of us doing this route and ShawnA has been invited but has not confirmed. We leave at 08h00 from Bracken Checkers.

[Trubie]

Just to recap the weekend plans' date=' Trubie and I are meeting at his place to do Voortrekker, Silver Ball, Rifle Range, Columbine, Lido hill (Down) and the Allewynspoort loop.

There are three of us doing this route and ShawnA has been invited but has not confirmed. We leave at 08h00 from Bracken Checkers.[/quote']

 

 

Cool, will see ya there!

[Nancy Drew]

Hello boys.... it's been a while, I think I must head south to the old 'hood one of these days to visit my geia's (sp?), just as soon as you've all got out of seriaaas training mode. Keep me in mind next time you going out on an easy one

[Trubie]

Check out the bikes - Peugeot & Daccordi!

[Delgado]

Nice pics T!! post them on the retro thread as well......i remember the Star 100 that was in that cold and hail......okes got hyperthermia....around the time of your photo...maybe 87?

[Shawn A]

Just to recap the weekend plans' date=' Trubie and I are meeting at his place to do Voortrekker, Silver Ball, Rifle Range, Columbine, Lido hill (Down) and the Allewynspoort loop.

There are three of us doing this route and ShawnA has been invited but has not confirmed. We leave at 08h00 from Bracken Checkers.[/quote']

Hi Slave,

I wasn`t in the office the last few days, but at leats we did some kilo`s during the weekend, Was it just me or tdid the wind blow later the day...

[Andyr249]

Hey Trubie and Agteros.

Winning time for Carousel was 2:39:59. So Trubie we were not far off with our 2:51's.

[Slave]

Yeah Trubes. Nice pics.

Was a nice ride on Saturday as well. Those false flats hurt some, especially the climb up to the top of Silver ball. I thinks it's Soutpansberg of iets.

So Sunday was supposed to be a recovery ride. Since Garry has not had much training I thought I would take him on a nice slow, social bunch ride. Damn, have those dudes got slow or something? I just wasn't into that sort of pace so I pushed it a bit. Garry says that the bunch split at the rugby club and by the time we hit the Allewynspoort road, there were only five of us left. Not sure if the bunch went on the longer loop or what, but as long as I could see shadows and wheels, I just kept cranking pedals. 

I only found out on the bridge that we had five members when I stopped for everyone to regroup for the assualt on the steps. It was a slow drag up to the top so I could keep the bunch together.

So Monday Garry asks for me to please not go quite so fast so he could recover. I promised I would.

When we got going, I found the pace very slow again so jumped up front to speed things up a bit. Between "Klippies" and I, we conspired to hurt the chaps a bit and set a mean pace again. Apologies Garry, but when you saw that bunch ahead of us, you just knew I would chase to pass.

Got some good mileage in for the weekend for a chnage. Come on Summer.  

[Cyclewizz]

So Slave, you have gotten faster!!!

[Slave]

Kid, my stats do not support this. Not one bit. In fact, they say I am slower.

 

I really struggled to get a 30 km/h climb going up the steps yesterday. Before it was easier to do. We also had a bit of a tailwind helping us to keep a 39 to 41 km'h pace along Allewynspoort. 

 

Hurt the legs a lot and I had to take two "rest periods" behind Klippies. Other than that, pretty much lead the bunch together.

 

Then again, being faster than the social bunch is not a great achievement.  Reason I went with the social bunch is I was worried about having to make it back home up the steps alone after getting dropped.

[Guest Agteros]

Slave, a few months ago you were happy to ride with the social bunch. Now they are too slow, and you don't want to acknowledge that you became faster?

 

That sounds like a really serious cyclist to me! They all train very little, are always sick / on the mend / had a mishap affecting them!

 

Just accept it, YOU BECAME FASTER!

[Slave]

Ox, I already told the Kid that my stats do not support this simple logic. I was looking at my stats on Friday night. Bar this weekend, I last rode with the social bunch in April. I last rode with the fast bunch about 6 weeks ago (on Fathers day to be precise) and I got dropped.

 

So, I have got faster than the social crowd and fit somewhere in no-man's land being somewhere between the two. Too fast for one and not fast enough for the other.

 

Thing is that with all the bike-jackings going down, I had to make a wise choice. Go with a group I know I can stick with, or go with a group I know are going to drop my @ss. Discression being the beter part of valour, the choice seemed to make more sense to me this weekend and having invited Garry to ride along, it was more important that he get up the steps without being jacked again.

 

I have long known that I was faster than the socialites. Like I said, the worrying thing is that I am not quite up to the speed of the faster, more serious group. Maybe I have to be content to ride with them on a more permanent basis and lead the pack rather than just follow and wheelsuck as before. At least that way I can give them back something I got from them when I began to frequent the crowd about ten months ago.

 

Either that, or I will try to form a new bunch that fits into the no-mans land area. It's not so much that they are slow, the start and warm-up is so much slower and it takes longer to get to a fair speed. Also it is easy to sit and wheelsuck at 38. I tried (an mostly managed) to lead them at 39 on Sunday and pretty much lead the pack at 40 yesterday with only two rest periods. Trick will be to sustain that pace without having to duck behind someone else for a few minutes every now and then.

 

Since we have a severe cash-flow crunch right now, I am forced to quit the nicotine stimulants. With some luck, that will allow me to breath better and may make that all important speed a bit faster, maybe / hopefully fast enough to hang with the big dawgs.

 

Logically, it seems that maybe I am faster, but statistically, I'm not.

 

In January, I could do that loop on my own at an average 32 plus. Yesterday the group barely managed 31.

 

Then again, I guess my Old cateye (Velo 8) overread by and average 0.8 km per hour faster than the current wireless cateye.

 

I just don't see that "faster" bit.

[Guest Agteros]

Hmmm some songs sung at weddings come to mind... like ... "How the h3ll can we believe you?"

[Slave]

You don't have to. I believe the stats. The numbers tell all.

 

Sunday's ride was at an average 29.4. Yesterday we only managed 30.6 despite some pretty hard riding along the flats of Allewynspoort.

 

2nd Jan 2009 I did the loop (solo) in 31.7 and 3rd Jan, another solo at 31.1.

 

So, the stats are telling me something else. Believe it or not.