Spring Classic Coppi Ride
OK well, it was only a spring classic because of the strange weather.
Similarly to last season, I resolved this season to make it out to Clarendon once a week for the Squadra Coppi's Wednesday hill ride starting at the Java Shack. It's a somewhat tough to commit to this ride as it begins at 6:30 AM which means a 6:05 departure (at the latest) from home. That's early. I tried to get a few fellow City Bikes team members out for the ride, but no dice, too early for them. I'll refrain from calling them names here. But know this! I will hassle them all until they go on the ride at least once.
Since it was the first Wednesday ride of the year I was hoping to see a good turnout- it's always better to ride that ride in a group. Unfortunately only 4 people showed (including me) and of the three other Coppi riders, I was the only one who knew the route. So City Bikes led the Wednesday Coppi hill ride. In fact I actually remembered the whole route. Leading was a bit tough because there were 4 distinctly different rider speeds. Keeping the group together was a challenge to the point where one guy did drop off completely. I felt somewhat responsible for his dropping off the group, but honestly, I am not that fast, and this ride is supposed to be a very fast (VO2Max ride). So as the leader I tried to keep things somewhat under control, but it didn't work out and it turned into a three rider effort. Sorry dude.
The weather took a turn for the worst and it started raining toward the end of the ride. The wind picked up as well and things became very sketchy at high speeds so I was not too keen on continuing the hill climbing and bombing for the final loop and led the group back to the beginning.
Overall, a solid 2.5 hour day; I was wiped that night.
Similarly to last season, I resolved this season to make it out to Clarendon once a week for the Squadra Coppi's Wednesday hill ride starting at the Java Shack. It's a somewhat tough to commit to this ride as it begins at 6:30 AM which means a 6:05 departure (at the latest) from home. That's early. I tried to get a few fellow City Bikes team members out for the ride, but no dice, too early for them. I'll refrain from calling them names here. But know this! I will hassle them all until they go on the ride at least once.
Since it was the first Wednesday ride of the year I was hoping to see a good turnout- it's always better to ride that ride in a group. Unfortunately only 4 people showed (including me) and of the three other Coppi riders, I was the only one who knew the route. So City Bikes led the Wednesday Coppi hill ride. In fact I actually remembered the whole route. Leading was a bit tough because there were 4 distinctly different rider speeds. Keeping the group together was a challenge to the point where one guy did drop off completely. I felt somewhat responsible for his dropping off the group, but honestly, I am not that fast, and this ride is supposed to be a very fast (VO2Max ride). So as the leader I tried to keep things somewhat under control, but it didn't work out and it turned into a three rider effort. Sorry dude.
The weather took a turn for the worst and it started raining toward the end of the ride. The wind picked up as well and things became very sketchy at high speeds so I was not too keen on continuing the hill climbing and bombing for the final loop and led the group back to the beginning.
Overall, a solid 2.5 hour day; I was wiped that night.
posted by Matt Donahue at
12:50 PM
2 Comments:
Cool to find another fellow rider's blog. I'm John, one of the Coppi's from the ride of which you speak. Thanks for showing us the way. Hope to see you out there next Wednesday.
By
John, at 12:33 PM
Hey John! It was great riding with you on Wednesday. I'm glad I remembered the route, it was somewhat doubtful a few times, but it worked. I was struggling to keep up with you, nice work. You're going to love that ride when it's a bigger group, it gets fast. See you wednesday.
By
Matt Donahue, at 12:48 PM
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