I know there is a fair few roadies on here so I’d just like to express a few words to those that do and those that don’t ride roads.
I’ve not been on here long but I’ve been riding bikes for as long as I can remember, recently I took the decision to ride more, having that app on my phone seemed like a great way to record my progress so I set myself a goal, that was to ride twice as many miles this year as I did last year, the problem with that was driving 3 hours to Wales each way and riding for 25 miles was going to be costly in fuel and time away from the family leaving the tally to click up slowly week by week. It’s not been easy, I’ve had this typecast archetypal image in my head of the weirdo’s who ride road. The weather although mild has been wet and more recently cold and wet. I’ve had discussions on here about Lycra or Anti Lycra to be more honest.
I’m now at the point where I’m looking at dropping some pretty descent money on a road going bike,
First of all rewind to October last year, I took my prized possession out of the garage and checked it over jumped on it and completed 18 miles all on road at an average of 12MPH. Don’t forget I’m a MTBer so I’m fit………. Imagine my disgust when I got stitch? This eventually subsided and I was knocking out 14MPH inside a few weeks and a few hundred miles.
Naturally I wanted to go faster so the knobbly tyres came off and on went some touring tyres, I was now knocking on the door of 1,000 miles and I was racking up my average speed to 15-16 MPH.
Faster still I put some full on road tyres on and increased my weekly mileage, at this point I was getting some friend requests off roadies on STRAVA, this didn’t go un noticed by my long standing MTBing mates who I’d been riding with for nearly 2 decades. Absent now for nearly 4 months they were pissed off with my increased mileage and taunted me with constant abuse re my new found pass time.
This weekend saw the culmination of the winters riding, a local ride covering some of the TdY route, invited by a dad on the school run who you could call obsessive about riding, races regularly around the country and competes in the National Series. 85 Miles covered in a group of 45 riders riding at an alarming pace where I really struggled to hold on, eventually nearing the end the elastic snapped and I got spat off the back. About 15 riders had dropped off already because the pace was too high. Under 2 miles from the end I had dropped off and just couldn’t get back on, one of the riders dropped off and came back to assist me with a steady hand on my hip but by this time we were inside the 1KM to go marker and these nutters were flat out, I rolled over the finishing line and nearly had a gripper. As I turned round I thought I recognised a figure to my front, dressed in Lycra from head to foot in club gear, before I could open my mouth the voice of my MTBing buddy scoffed ROADIE SCUM, followed by a if you can’t beat em join em,
He had completed the same route from Otley to Doncaster just minutes earlier with a club he has become associated with, I’d never ridden in a group before and experienced that tempo and the noise that a few dozen riders make hammering through a village in the middle of nowhere with sound resonating off the walls and houses.
It’s safe to say that I’m hooked, once I’d succumbed to Lycra I don’t think there was any denying I was hooked,
We caught up this morning discussing the Alps trip in July, it’s gone from a full on descending holiday to a shared Road Biking trip away. How has that bappened.
I suppose the morale to the story is don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. And if you want to increase fitness and loose weight ride a road bike. It certainly worked for me.
