KVRC Chain Gang Session. 6-11-19

After doing the freewheel competition and failing badly after a summer of eating and drink, Claire Rushton was putting feelers out about doing chain gang rides on a Wednesday night, 7pm from Gilpin Bridge. So I thought why not at least it's an excuse to get out on the bike and support the club in offering something different. So off I set from home to get there for 7pm, fortunately the rain had stopped but the roads were still damp. I was the first to turn up just before 7, Peter Abernethy soon appeared saying he'd seen some bike lights coming down the hill from the Hare and Hounds as he turned by PV Dobsons and thought it was Claire, sure enough Claire turned up a couple of minutes later and was surprised there was 2 of us waiting by the garage. We went into the carpark by the pub and saw Tim Bennett assembling his bike. That made a total of 4 Hardy souls.

I suggested a steady ride to Derby Arms to allow Peter and Tim to warm up properly, then come back doing intervals at 15 seconds hard and 45 seconds easy and for some strange reason they all agreed. We'd see how many we could do.

Off we set with Peter and Tim setting the pace to Derby Arms to warm up at 17-18mph, that's when I knew this was going to be a good hard session for me at least. First leg back to Gilpin Bridge and I managed to stay with the 3 time triallers for 4 sprints before I started to get dropped but stayed a reasonable distance to see what was going on and pushed hard for me when they did, was about 30 seconds behind them when they turned for the second leg and they waited until I rejoined them and gave me another minute to recover before starting again. It was a similar story for me on the second and third leg. Think a total of 18 sprints were done over 3 legs.

The beauty of it was even though I was distanced by them they were never a long way ahead and they worked as hard as I did but at a faster pace and recovered quicker than me, I never once thought I was holding anyone up. After the 3 legs we went up the Lyth Valley for 2 miles at a steady pace then turned and came back to Gilpin Bridge at a good reasonable pace, I held onto Tim's wheel for the first three quarters of a mile before I started to lose contact with them put carried on at my pace. Then we had a steady pace to Derby Arms and back to recover. I peeled off at Derby Arms to make my way home after having a hard session for me but I really enjoyed it. Riding up through Grange and up Risedale hill took their toll on my legs as they started to feel heavy, I knew by then I'd worked hard.

Will I be back next week you bet I will.

Bruce Barnes