Day Four

I went the other 15-16s early in the morning for a super easy spin. We got back and all of us except Anders went for a walk in the town. Izegem is a large city and every day I am surprised to see that it is bigger than I thought it was.
Here at the house they have a fleet of commuter bikes to go into town. They are in amazing disrepair, which is fine because the mechanics are always too busy. Also, I guess the theory is that the less functional the bikes are the less anyone would want to steal them. Yesterday I went out with one for a couple K to get to know my way around. I have to say that I had a great workout because both the fenders were rubbing against the tires and the rear tire was flat.
After dinner we rode a couple miles from the house to do some drills. We started by practicing taking feeds at speed. After we had finished this we move on to some bumping drills. I’m not a very aggressive rider. Normally when in a large cat three field I would much rather move up the outside instead of push my way through gaps which really don’t exist. However, after today I think I am now a lot more comfortable at doing this. After finishing the bumping we moved on to motor pacing. I have never done this before, but Noel’s instructions were helpful. He told me to keep eye contact with the driver and use my peripheral vision to ensure that I didn’t hit the back of the car. To get the best draft I had to ride only a few inches of the back of the car. At first it was a bit unnerving but at the end Tim brought me up to about 35 miles an hour and I was only inches of the back. It’s amazing how little work you have to do when riding so close to a car; at 30 miles an hour I was hardly even pedaling. Of course motor pacing should only be done if the driver in front has agreed, knows what he/she is doing and not anywhere near any other traffic!!!!!!