Club Ride, Sunday May 15th 2016 – A New Rider’s View

Having missed out on the Mother’s Day ride I was keen to get back in the saddle for my second Sunday Club Ride. The weather forecast looked promising but the prospect of “putting on the hurt” for 3 hours was rather less encouraging. Nonetheless, with Nick’s dire warnings ringing in my ears, my bike was loaded onto the rack and off to Wye Road Safeway Dan and I trundled.

All promises of riding with me were quickly forgotten by Dan and I watched him jet off with the “fast” group. He later claimed to be racked with anxiety about how I would fare but the large smile on his face belied that comment! The 13 strong group that remained set off, a vague destination of Fort Saskatchewan was all I knew about where we were headed.

Having experienced group leaders is a huge perk of being a newbie within the club. I no longer need to scour Google Map satellite images to determine whether a paved road suddenly turns into a gravel nightmare; I get in the pack, I ride and I turn when told to turn. And having no clue where I am means I can’t fret about how far we’ve come or how far it is back to the parking lot.

North, then east, then south, then… well, you get the picture. The uneven group number meant a number of riding partners along the way and a chance to pick up great advice from Margaret and Kathy. My favourite part? The rotating echelon on 520 that Ken and Richard engineered. It was hard work on tired legs but made the miles fly by.

In the end, we covered 62.1 miles in just under 3 hours and 20 minutes of riding time. All I can say is, is it Sunday yet?!

– Sherry Haque