Unsurprisingly not a good ride for me. As Phil said, 20 odd riders at the square which is fantastic - not knocking it, or the organisation of the group, but in hindsight we really should have split into two. For safety as much as anything - I do feel sorry for the motorists having to pass 20 riders all at once - doesn't help with driver frustration.
Now I know it's november and all that but the pace on the way out was a little slow for a training ride (in my humble opinion 18mph with a tailwind isn't cutting it really) and, as a result of it being such a large group it was taking AGES to get a turn on the front.
At the level crossing we decided to roll the turns over faster to combat this, which is probably the reason for the pick up in pace. I wouldn't know - we stopped briefly (well, I did & Will waited for me) saying 'we'll catch you up' and then never managed to get back on.
We absolutely beasted ourselves and very nearly caught you turning right off the A63 (some of the back markers might have even seen us). But then we got stuck at the level crossing for a couple of minutes. After that it was a real struggle. 23mph into the head wind between us was not a match for the time gap & whatever speed you guys were doing, but I'm pretty sure knocking it off 1/2 a mile or so, for a short time would have let us back on.
However, no-one sat up & personally I feel that is quite bad form in November. I'd like to think I would have waited. Possibly the fact that the group was so big meant that no one noticed - I don't know - but still - it was a group ride I wanted, not a 2up TT over the last 30 miles.
Anyway, rant over - at the end of the day we had a good work out. Just a little disappointed that it seemed like a competitive one-upmanship ride, rather than a training group.
Still, we'll be there next week
- suggest splitting into two as Phil says - I'm happy to lead a group as I know the routes.