A week in the life of a WCC Ride Leader The “cycle” (ha) starts and ends on a Sunday. Return from the club ride to lunch and a well-earned rest to find the invitation to lead a ride the following Sunday. Choose colour and distance and put your name forward. The offer to lead always seems to be accepted! Select a route. What routes has this colour ride done recently? Consult file containing the last few ride routes. Then either a) use a different, but tried and tested route, or b) design a new one. In designing a new route a recce ride is usually required. That’s OK. I’m retired, so this gives some purpose to my mid-week ride. Sometimes one recce is not enough. It took 3 rides to design and test the now popular Winter Hill and Warners Hill route. The first ride found me on a track more suitable for a CX bike than the carbon bling owned by many members. Ride 2 and the track ended up in someone‘s front garden between Hurley and Temple. Ride 3 to test and commit to memory the final route. It was worth the effort as everyone seems to like those hills. So why bother leading a ride? Couldn’t I get someone else to do it? For sure, but this way I can chose route, distance and speed. Long Blues to get in the miles before Revolve 24. Short Reds to get in a bit of speed before Red Bull Timelaps. Fancy giving it a go? You should. It’s easy after your first one (especially if you possess a GPS device!).

Have just totted up my mileage for 2018 which is 3724. Not too bad at age 81.This was undoubtedly helped by the club’s Green rides, which I can almost keep up with! The graded rides are a great idea. Haven’t been tempted by an E bike—yet!