mollusk

And more crashes in your weekly "world's" weekday rides. Too many fit tri-guys show up that have no idea how to ride in a group. My first time riding with our local world's ride (it was a legit hard ride with Phil Gaimon as a regular) one of the established and older riders came up next to me and touched me during the neutral start section of the ride. Of course I did not freak and kept my line like it was no big deal and said "Hello". He was just indicating to me that he was there and gauging my reaction. I had ridden with racers before in group rides and I think that I passed the test and now I was OK.. And being my first time on the ride I rode at the back and observed how it was done. Every "world's" group ride has its own etiquette. You just have to learn the house rules. We had a longer Tuesday ride and a shorter Thursday ride with different conventions. Thursday was more free for all. A few times a rider would have a friend on a motorbike hiding up the road and he would attack on get on the moto wheel. If you were at the tail end of that it was a total sufferfest as rider after rider in front of you create gaps that you have to cover. I think that I quit after six well over 35 mph sprints just to reach the last wheel on my second Hipp Ride.

One of the reasons I hated these rides is that it was hard to incorporate them into training. After a while I approached these rides with "What is my training objective for the day". Usually I would say that I want to make one really hard effort. Sometimes that was early on. Sometimes it was late. I never approached these rides with any idea of "winning". Winning was on the weekend for yourself or for a teammate.