In article <[email hidden]>
raisethe <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>
Quoted message said:The thing is, I'm not clubby and 'family fun' / charity rides are
definitely out.
I'm not much of a people person, but I like bikes and I tend to get on
with people who like bikes (as distinct from people who just want to win
races). Strangely, cycling clubs generally don't seem to feel a need to
organise charity rides.
I wasn't suggesting that you should participate in the club social
events, just that they'd be more understanding of someone riding time
trials for the hell of it rather than for sporting excellence.
Quoted message said:I simply want to train to a peak for a race, ride
myself to exhaustion, hopefully achieving my targetted time (however
slow that may be) then go home.
Fairy nuff.
Quoted message said:I used to run half marathons in the
top quarter of the peloton then I got fatter and fatter until I would
finally wobble in a long way after the main field. By then all of the
organisers had packed up and gone home! It wasn't fun.On the other hand, to get the motivation to go out riding on cold wet
winter days, it helps to have a specific event / target to aim for.
Maybe as Simon says I can try a couple of the local TT clubs and see
how it goes, but what would be approximately the slowest ten mile time
in a typical local TT?
Back in the 80s I was a founder member of a club that was set up by
people who wanted to ride without feeling intimidated by the perceived
elitism of the local racing clubs and CTC. The membership was mostly
juniors, vets and tourists who fancied a bit of fun because most of the
competitive riders were already members of one of the two or three other
local clubs.
We used to do a Sunday run of 40-odd miles punctuated by a pub lunch,
and attend two or three local time trials each week. Because we weren't
a bunch of wannabe pro racers (with the possible exception of some of
the more energetic juniors) people were happy to turn up and give it a
go, including people with no lycra on upright bikes. A good time on our
usual 10 course was around 23 minutes, but we wouldn't turn our noses up
at people who took another 15 minutes to finish.
Having a club run to get to was often a good incentive to get out of bed
on a Sunday morning, and there's something about getting to your
destination country pub on an evil day, grabbing a pint and warming
yourself in front of an open fire while you wait for a slap up meal.
Then the ride back, of course, and a nice hot bath.