First ride with team

Cycling is a team sport.  Many folks think otherwise, riding a bike is a solitary practice for them, culminating in the ultimate example of solo self-absorption, the triathalon.  Americans have really bought into this perspective and even here, in Colorado Springs, home of the USOC and numerous coaching concerns, riders spend most of their time riding by their lonesome and the few teams that are here, seem to lack the cohesion to train together, let alone race together. 

So I’m excited about joining a team, Colobikelaw, and doubly excited that they have a group of twelve guys or so that race the Master’s 35+ category 3 together and get results.  And they have training rides to build cohesion. 

Left to Right: Philip Capraro (35/4), Chris Sauer, Marco Capraro, Brian Hart, Colin Catel, Marco Horton, Jason Cherry, Steve Ruskaup, Ryan Muncy, Tim Cody, Doug Gordon, Brad Rolf

We met at Cafe Europa in Denver for a post-Thanksgiving ride to burn a little fat and to chew it as well.  Several of the guys were new like me, some had upgraded from category 4 this year and this was our first chance to get to know each other and our riding styles.

Sounds so complicated, this riding the bike in a group, but so much of what happens in a race depends on what you know of your teammates, their personalities, desires, abilities.  I’m descending with a fellow six inches in front of my wheel at 50 miles an hour; I need to know what he does when there’s a pothole, or gravel in the road.  I need to know if he keeps pedaling when he gets out of the saddle on a climb or slides backwards for a moment.  In a race, is he the guy that chases down a break and can hold it, or does he have the big sprint for a finish?  These are things that you get to know on training rides.

Doug is our team leader and is immediately dropped as we head to the bike path and Invesco Field.  We don’t realize this for five miles.  First rule: do not drop your team leader.  It’s not his fault, the pace was way too hot for warming up and we were dodging in and out of side roads and turns on the trail.  We reconnected after a phone call and sending Marco back down the trail.

We ride to Golden and then the group decides against the climb up Lookout Mtn and instead adds a few more k’s of rolling terrain north of Denver.  It’s a bit cold, 40 degrees or so, but the sun stays bright.  The group surges and retracts, over and over again.  A rotating paceline is started and then stalls as young Marco needs a push to pull off.  Gaps form as riders pulling off don’t ease up and we talk about all of it, part of the process. 

One of the hardest things about group riding, especially in the states, is that strong riders always feel the need to pound their chests, ride their bikes as hard as they can, even to the detriment of the group’s cohesion.  I always come back to my Wed outings with Geoff in southern France, ‘Tranquil, tranquil, Chris.’ as we would head out on the long ride with some really good riders.  The object was always to be riding the same pace five hours later, together. 

Later, when we’re sitting a table outside the cafe, sipping lattes, one of the strong fellows says, ‘When I ride, I ride hard.’  We laugh later when the same guy declines the idea of riding a team time trial.  There’s much more to this riding game then just being strong.  As crusty old Geoff said a few years ago, riding now is 70 percent mental and 30 percent physical, while in our more youthful days it was the opposite.  I try to explain this to young Marco during the ride as he sprints out ahead of the group and then fades.  Save your strength, use it to be smooth and do things that help the group. 

Sounds like good advice to live by in general.