In my consistent run of bunch riding in Canberra, I became a quick study in the morays of the bunch:
- You must ride in bunches. If you are solo, you had better be: (a) riding to a bunch, (b) riding home or work from a bunch, (c) dropped from a bunch or (d) flatted or had some type of mechanical that has forced you from the bunch. Never admit to going on a solo ride either, or you will receive a look of confusion as if you have just admitted to masturbating.
- Always ride 2-by-2 and be sure to engage in deep conversation with your partner.
- When everyone sits up at the end, find a select clique of riders and follow them to their coffee shop.
- In some cases, you may need to give or look for the signal for “coffee shop” to let people know where you are going. This sign is administered by making your hand to look like a teacup with little finger and thumb extended, raising it it up as if sipping from your thumb.
- If you want to get in more K’s after the ride, roll up behind the guys who finished first at the final sprint or any guy in red, and follow them wherever they go. They will either: (a) ride on forever at a conversation pace, usually involving some crazy-scary bike path riding for a least a few of the K’s, (b) roll to a coffee shop and then ride extra K’s in the “a”, (c) whack 5+ climb intervals and then accomplish follow that with “b”.
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My bunch ride (translation: group ride) attendance since arriving in Canberra is unmatched, even by the most hardy. This isn’t necessarily something to be proud of from a performance standpoint. After a few weeks of bunch riding after arriving, my thought was, “How do these guys go so hard, so often?” There are group rides every day of the week, but just 4 de facto rides are recognized by the racers: Tuesday Hour of Power, Wednesday Morning Bunch, Friday Hour of Terror (which also has a simultaneous slower ride from the same location), and the Saturday Bakery Bunch. All start on the Southside at the Bike Shed sharply at 6 am, except for the Saturday ride which allows for a whopping 30 minutes of sleeping in. These rides are often followed up with extra K’s by the pros. On top of that, you can throw in the Wednesday evening Crits and you have at least 5 hard efforts (translation: cross-eyed pain worse than any induced in race or group ride I have experienced at home) during the week.
When I came to Canberra, I had no idea what my training was going to be like, or if I would even be able to get in much riding. I definitely wanted to do some races in Australia, but wasn’t sure what to expect. Upon seeing the number of bunch rides on the calendar, I decided I would commit to at least doing as many of these as I could. I figured I might as well take advantage of this since this is not a luxury I have at home. Using the same line of thought, I decided to do all of the crits simply because they were races I didn’t have to travel to. Read more
