First Group Ride

Well, this past Saturday I finally stepped out of my comfort zone and did a group ride with the Bluegrass Cycling Club. I joined the club back in December after lurking via their website most of last year. The club held their season opening ride on Saturday and I decided to join them for a group ride to see what it was all about.

I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by the number of really thin and fit cyclists with really nice road bikes. There I was with my steel touring bike and still 40 pounds overweight. Prior to the ride starting, I mingled and listened to various groups discussing the upcoming ride. Unfortunately, the ride sign up sheets indicated distances but not pace for each group so I had no way of knowing which group was going to ride which pace, "A", "B", or "C". While listening to a couple of ladies discuss how this was going to be their first ride of the season after not riding hardly at all over the winter, I gambled that their group would not be too fast paced.

So as the faster groups of predominately male cyclists departed I stood waiting for "the ladies" to roll out. As their group departed, I found that there was only one other male riding with the group. So be it. I am a realist, I am too old and still too fat to let my ego get in the way of my riding with the "girls". By the way the "girls" were all very strong riders and could have easily dropped me at will. The were riding the slow pace by choice not because it was the best they could do like me. Anyway, I had a great time! At the second turn, we stopped to let a couple of the ladies catch up and the ladies introduced themselves to me. Overall, they were very friendly and very welcoming. It was a very pleasant experience in spite of the stiff wind we faced on the return leg of the ride.

I enjoyed the group experience so much that I have decided to join a "C/B" group ride scheduled for this evening. The wind is supposed to be much calmer this evening so I hope to be able to keep up or at least not get dropped too early in the ride. It is posted on the calendar as a planned 21 mile ride. I have ridden more than twice this distance by myself, but probably at a much slower pace. I think I need the group experience to push me to push myself to work harder than I would on my own. You never know, maybe the ladies will be there again tonight for me to ride with...