Training Ride 101 – It isn’t that Cold

Complaining 101

Several cyclists I know, have been complaining on social media about the cold snap that has hit Florida.  Please.  If  these soft serves took a gander at websites like Weather.com, they’d see that Florida doesn’t have five feet of snow on the ground, meaning there are no excuses not to ride!

 

Tuesday Night GCX Worlds – November 18, 2014 Edition

JOM's rule, > 32F, calves exposed.
JOM’s rule, > 32F, calves exposed.

Eight riders appeared at ride start, including two newcomers; Irish Andy, and Roger, representing Brick City Cycles of Ocala.  Because of the colder temperatures (40F) at ride start, it was decided to ride the medium route – 34 miles in all, about 50% limerock, dirt, etc.

Everyone on the ride was dressed in their warmest of warm gear.  Barring JOM’s calves, no legs were exposed, and a few riders chose to wear hoodies or balaclavas.  Mr Lintz of Gator Cycle appeared to be wearing a pair of underpants on his head, with a hole cut out for his face.  Interesting.

 

Going Easier Due to the Cold?

Rare tubeless fail.
Rare tubeless fail.

I think not.  Just because everyone was wearing fancy jackets, tights, mega gloves or other bollocks, there was zero intention of riding easy.  For some of the attendees who aren’t participating in cyclocross this time of year, I do question why they like to ride so hard, all of the time.  Maybe they like suffering a lot?  For me, I have one last race remaining for 2014.  After which, I am definitely taking it easy for a while.

Every stretch of limerock, dirt and gravel was ridden hard.  There were multiple attacks.  There were multiple counter attacks.  But Roger was the strongest guy tonight.  If he possessed tribal knowledge, I’d say he could have crushed us at will.

 

Feedback

Roger loved the ride, and we hope he’ll return again soon.

Rumour is, Mary Verrandaux, Ocala resident, and former member of the U.S. National team that contested the 1985 Tour Cycliste Féminin (aka Women’s Tour de France) will be appearing on our humble ride soon.

Irish Andy announced it was the best and hardest ride he’d done since appearing in Gainesville.  Once Andy gets a little tribal knowledge, he’ll be very dangerous on these rides.

Thanks for reading!

6 Comments

  1. K-Dogg K-Dogg

    Yes, we have ridden in much colder temps. It was interesting to hear 4 different accents coming out through their mufflers last night…..English, Scottish, German and Aussie.

  2. Avatar Roger

    I think there was some pretty hard to follow Irish in there as well.

    • JOM JOM

      Andy is Irish, but spent quite a bit of time in Scotland. Hybrid accent. Thankfully, he and I have no problems in the communications department 😉

      • Avatar Roger

        I spent several days in Scotland and also Northern Ireland a few years ago. I can honestly say that whatever form of English they were speaking did not connect any dots in my brain. I stared and nodded with zero comprehension until I got back to London. Luckily, I could just buy a round of Guinness and cause everyone to smile.

        • JOM JOM

          Guinness, breaking the language barrier one brew at a time.

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