Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
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Soldato
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Can you elaborate?
Main thing I'm noticing is that as we rotate round, I feel as though I'm having to surge a lot to hold the wheel in front, tricky part is there are a few cat 1s in there, so everyone is on the edge anyway, lose 1m and your spat out the back.
For instance, in the pack at 200-240w
Keeping the wheel of the guy in fron that accelerated for his turn on the front. 450w
10 seconds or so at 400w to pass him then 350w for my time on the front.
I feel if I could sit at 250 max in the pack then 350w on the front without the surges I'd hold on for the hour.
too much weight over the front might make the bike handle a bit funny, you really want it to be stable but responsive
Is this a group ride or a race?
Poor form smashing the front in a chain gang situation, doesn’t prove anything.
If the bunch is doing 40kmh average you want to come through at 40.5 while the other side is doing 39.5.
Jam the power on too fast and surge through it strings the line out, the guy you’re pulling in front of has to gas it to get back on your wheel so it spoils the recovery side too.
I accept the pace usually ramps up towards the end as the stronger riders want to go faster, best thing to do here is to take up the ticket collector position and sit on the back, call the riders through if you don’t intend on pulling a turn.
We used to roll the last 15k into town on a Friday, started off at 38ish so all grades could have a turn and a nice big bunch roll. Turned into a full gas 45-50k with 4-6 guys at the end with a big snake behind of people blowing up.
Soldato
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Ok yeah I get you. Thanks.
Soldato
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Weekly balls out chaingang. Synopsis for newcomers is to make sure you know the way home, riding to the pace of the fastest guys.
I agree, and usually tend to think the line coming though should be on power, the line dropping off should be actively recovering, sat up on the hoods even so as to not force the faster line to accel to overtake.
I think theres a bit of inexperience on a few counts and I'm not strong enough to leave them out to hang a little when they do surge.
I'll aim to get on someone else's wheel today, try and learn some of their craft.
Associate
Don't get me started on CRC.. I ordered a set of Zipp 404's off them, when they turned up they were scratched all over (brake track was unused). My guess is they were on a display bike or something.
i got on the phone to complain only for the CS guy to tell me it was the same as if i went into a clothes store and purchased something... people try stuff on then it gets put back out for sale basically..
i hit the roof
Soldato
CRC once sent me an eTap groupset that was missing the rear mech, which I only discovered after I’d totally stripped the bike so it was unrideable. 
Soldato
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Got dropped again tonight, can't fault the allez tbh but several (I think 6) cat 1 guys with all this testosterone from not racing swinging their **** around... Fair play to them, puts it into perspective for us hobbyists.
Soldato
To be fair though, it's one of the best ways of getting stronger yourself. (Riding with stronger people)
Don't get me started on CRC.. I ordered a set of Zipp 404's off them, when they turned up they were scratched all over (brake track was unused). My guess is they were on a display bike or something.
i got on the phone to complain only for the CS guy to tell me it was the same as if i went into a clothes store and purchased something... people try stuff on then it gets put back out for sale basically..
i hit the roof
You found a phone number for CRC?
Soldato
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100%
Been riding with the same general group every Tuesday for a few weeks now. They kick my head in every time :lol:
Love it.
Soldato
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You shouldn't stress too much, I feel if the guy you are following through suddenly surges up then he's in the wrong not you.
I tend to just do my pace, pretty much what Berger said. If we're going through at 26mph then I'll stick to 26mph until I'm mostly infront of the guy on the left then I'll drift over and downshift one gear which tends to drop the speed by about 1mph. People that surge are the death of a chaingang and seems to be on the increase as new reallllly strong guys come out but don't know where to sit. If it feels slow/steady when you are all rotating then you are doing it right.
I had to find motivation to get out tonight as the Bundy seems to be the midweek race and the place to be. My last ride was a week ago at the Bundy so....rested much???
Good numbers recently and some handy riders making it hard. Rolled over the finish with 5 others as I started to sprint but the rear wheel was just spinning on the wet road. Think there was about 20-22 started and I made the cut when it got proper hard
. I could see flashes of something when I shut my eyes going up this bit https://www.strava.com/segments/2340366?filter=overall , doesn't look mental at about 340w for 3 minutes odd but with blowing crosswinds and riding on the white line it felt intense.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3829532985/segments/2723292732246721656
I tend to just do my pace, pretty much what Berger said. If we're going through at 26mph then I'll stick to 26mph until I'm mostly infront of the guy on the left then I'll drift over and downshift one gear which tends to drop the speed by about 1mph. People that surge are the death of a chaingang and seems to be on the increase as new reallllly strong guys come out but don't know where to sit. If it feels slow/steady when you are all rotating then you are doing it right.
I had to find motivation to get out tonight as the Bundy seems to be the midweek race and the place to be. My last ride was a week ago at the Bundy so....rested much???
Good numbers recently and some handy riders making it hard. Rolled over the finish with 5 others as I started to sprint but the rear wheel was just spinning on the wet road. Think there was about 20-22 started and I made the cut when it got proper hard
. I could see flashes of something when I shut my eyes going up this bit https://www.strava.com/segments/2340366?filter=overall , doesn't look mental at about 340w for 3 minutes odd but with blowing crosswinds and riding on the white line it felt intense.https://www.strava.com/activities/3829532985/segments/2723292732246721656
New Specialised Tarmac looks incredible.
The price is also incredible. More than I paid for our car, a brand new car too!
When did bikes get to be more than 10 grand and people thought this price was sensible! I’d struggle to justify more than 2500-3000 and that’s a big budget imo!
The price is also incredible. More than I paid for our car, a brand new car too!
When did bikes get to be more than 10 grand and people thought this price was sensible! I’d struggle to justify more than 2500-3000 and that’s a big budget imo!
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
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It's bloody ridiculous to be honest, they aren't anything special and when people drop that sort of cash they expect it to last forever and never need any servicing. It's probably the opposite, buy Zipp and have to clean them out after every wet ride vs some heavy hand builts with decent hubs on them.
The bike I'm riding shipped with an alloy bar and stem at £4k, tyres are also utter pish in the wet. Looks like someone has made a kit to run my mechanical cabling inside the frame for £40 - why could Cannondale not do that from the factory?
Quite a difference. Obviously they also have the Knot bar and stem but it isn't needed to route internally.
The bike I'm riding shipped with an alloy bar and stem at £4k, tyres are also utter pish in the wet. Looks like someone has made a kit to run my mechanical cabling inside the frame for £40 - why could Cannondale not do that from the factory?
Quite a difference. Obviously they also have the Knot bar and stem but it isn't needed to route internally.
Soldato
I'm having some indexing issues with my rear gears. Is there anything different to know for Di2? How many rotations is normal for making adjustments, I'm going a quarter turn at a time and I seem to move where the gears skip from 3rd up to maybe 9th, but I can't seem to get it to stop. I've probably not gone more than 1-1½ turns in total from the starting point though, then I come back again.
Associate
You found a phone number for CRC?
it was about 5 years ago, it might have been the online helper with the call me back option on it..
I’ll never ever use them again.. I get mistakes from time to time but the attitude was terrible.
I thought I just got unlucky but from reading some of these posts it seems to be their standard
Soldato
How the hell is it acceptable for councils to leave roads in these conditions?! 
