Everyone loves a group ride, right? Group rides are chances to catch up with friends, get in a good workout, chase a few stronger riders or tear the legs off your riding buddies. But a group ride is as much a dance as it is a ride, and there are a number of things you SHOULD have learned along your journey as a cyclist. Whether you are a group riding sage or a newly minted rookie, you should observe the rules, the etiquette and the sanctity of the holiest of Sunday cycling practices (aside from watching the pros on Eurosport, of course…)
In today's episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll wax poetic on those things that you need to have learned in order to execute the perfect group ride, and I'll cover a couple of things in the cycling news sphere that caught my attention.
That said, today's podcast will include:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:10 — 75.8MB)
@ 7:00 – Discussion about the Columbian women's team “nude kit gate” and Simon Gerrans's crying after his silver in the World Championship road race.
@ 21:23- 14 things you should have learned about group riding, including things like not throwing your bike backwards when standing to climb, not overlapping wheels and to spend time refining your pedal stroke, lest you surge at the front of the group.
I won't even put a photo of the Columbian women's team up here, because it's simply not necessary. But here are links to the stories I mention in the first segment of the podcast.
Velonews link to a large portion of the women's field quitting the Giro della Toscana
As a quick sidenote: this episode is a little out of sequence. It's not going to be episode 50, so disregard the discussion about episode 50 at the end (well, take some of the questions and think about them, but simply ignore that I'm saying episode 50). I do some of my recording in advance, and this material had been planned to be episode 50. It's not. I felt it needed to be moved up in the recording schedule after a few recent “encounters” with local group rides.
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Now that we're winding down the season, you might want to think about planning your next season and squaring away your training! Check out my modular training plans in my online store and think about building your offseason strength with some weight workouts. And don't forget to save 10% with the coupon code in this week's podcast.
