I took my road bike out for the first time today. The weather wasn't great, but although the ground was wet the air was dry when I rolled out the front door.
I took the time to do a couple of back and forths up and down my street to get used to the road pedals and shoes and then headed off to meet Steve and Gavin at 6.30.
At 6.40am I got a call from Gavin to say he'd slept in but was on his way, but still no Steve. Then a silent SS rolled next to me and I saw it was Jim. 'Oh, hello, are you riding with us today?' 'Maybe'. Eeek.
Let me set some context. Jim makes the other competitive people I know look soft, he smashes every session and goes hard every time. Training with him scares me even though he's lovely, good fun and great company.
Just after 7am, and Steve let me know he taken a wrong turn but was on his way. Gavin showed up, so Jim, Gav and I decided to roll the Boulevard and wait for Steve to catch us.
I was dropped on the second hill. But, OMG, my bike.....so light! Gears! Quiet! Lovely!
Jim and Gavin took off and I kept a pretty good pace. I was getting a bit more comfortable with the gears, but still standing up to get up the hills rather than gearing down. Jim and Gavin set me straight on that front and encouraged me to keep spinning and sitting rather than stand up.
I attempted Yarra St, but pulled hard on the bars expecting my heavy bike and gave myself a fright when I pulled myself across the road so I headed back down.
It was raining by now and the roads were really slippery. We kept going for a bit longer, but when Steve got a flat we decided to call it quits when he'd fixed it and went to 3 Bags for porridge.
Nice ride, nice guys. Nice way to start the morning.
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