Topic Title

What, if any rides are there Sunday mornings please? Is there an easy way for folk to see, especially newbies, what riding is on without having to wait for specific posts or the email shot a couple of days before hand?

Cheers!

Woah, this feels strange - posting on the racing forum. Am going all light headed. Do I have to talk about Watts?

Anyway Mr Caja, there is but one official Clifton road ride on a Sunday. I make to about 75% of them. When I'm not there there are plenty of other experienced wheels to follow. I wouldn't call it a training ride, more of a clubrun.

Meet at 0900 for an 0909 departure (when the bells stop). You'll get typically 5-6+ hours riding and 45mins in a cafe. Different route each week. This week we're going to, sunny, Brid. Next week, probably Langdale End (or Lockton - Leversham if it stays dry).

You're welcome to come along every week or sample every now and again. But don't expect to be burning up the tarmac.

Hey thanks rob. So, I posted in training and racing because long cafe rides don't help race training. Just a a general observation for anyone who races.

I guess I'm after a group three hour burst but at this time of year not a hard beating, I'm also coming back from injury. I know other folk also just can't spend the whole day in the saddle... Clifton seem to love their cafe rides or training rides where you get dropped but there are a number of folk looking for something in betwix...

Hi Carol. Dropped from training rides? Pffftttt

Since we've been splitting the Saturday training rides into "brisker" and "steadier" groups there have been few droppees (droppings? Doesn't sound right). If you want short (ie three hour) sharp sessions, they're the ones for the job, although I know plenty who'd argue that the club runs have plenty of training benefit too, especially through the winter. I appreciate that not everyone has an entire day to devote to cycling though, which is a separate issue.

The plan this Saturday is to start upping the speed a bit by riding steady out to Bishopwood, doing 30miles of laps, and then riding steady back. We'll again split into groups and for anyone who finds it still a bit swift I'd suggest popping your pips in order to stay in the group for as long as possible, turn around if dropped and join the next group oncoming - just get as much speed work out of it as you can.

See you on Saturday?

Cheers Phil, Rob. It's simply about training smart when you have a demanding job, long cafe rides don't do it sadly, though I love to dip in for fun if and when time and other commitments allow.

I'm signed up to ride cross race Sunday so might come along for a brief battering on Saturday but I can name at least four peeps who would like to do something that is not a total suffer fest before getting dropped, at least until we can get trained up to ride in this training group. There definitely should be something in between in a club this large so I guess the answer to my question is that I may have to get off and set something up.

Carol AKA Caja27

Always very happy to hear the words "I" and "set something up" in the same sentence!

It's always hard to cope with variations in ability and aspiration. By splitting the rides into two or three groups we've pretty much kept everyone on board through the winter, although some will have found the rides harder than others. There are riders who were shelled out the back last year who are now comfortable, having clearly done useful stuff to improve their fitness/endurance during 2012.

The unstated aim of the training rides is to ensure that - if you do them regularly through the winter and progress as they progress (and for most people doing this requires that you do other training during the week) - you should be okay in 3rd/4th cat races come the start of the season, which is the kind of "base level" in road racing. I've no idea how this sits with the expectations of triathletes or people doing other stuff, but I assume they're making their own judgements on the value of it. There are stronger riders in amongst the regulars and, again, I assume they're doing their own stuff and making their own judgements about the value of the group rides.

End of chat, Kevin would say!

Hey Phil cheers, just in from glasgow but will rock up tomorrow for a battering!

I perhaps have not expressed clearly enough that I don't think Clifton IS meeting everyone's needs. Fine if you've been able to train all winter, as you say, but there are folk who aren't fast enough for training riding just yet because of either injury or aspiring to get into racing but are not fast enough to start training at cat 3 Level. They are not in your training group 'yet' and if cafe riding isn't an option for them what is left? Maybe it's simply not Cliftons 'target audience'. I still don't agree that long rides in subzero temperatures, eating whilst getting cold and then trying to ride hime on a full stomach is optimum use of training time but we can beg to differ there
I don't know why but I have never been able to convince the club of this gap and I know folk doing their own thing as a result which is a shame as they are the ones who might have got on to racing with the right group. Then again Clifton has always struggled with large numbers so maybe it's simply a strategic way to keep the numbers down.

Anyways I'll go bang my head somewhere else now....