There are a couple of women on our ride who race our local races. They are quick, very quick on the rollies but they lack real power on those 2% drag that go on for few miles so they learn how and which wheel to follow to get out of the wind. You are correct. they train with the men and they get strong fast. When I was riding the track, this young pimple faced 16 year old girl shows up one Saturday evening and we noticed that she was really something. She can hang with a lot of the local riders on the track. As she got a couple of years behind her, she went on to hold the unofficial world's Kilo as well as a bunch of other races. I believe she was on the olympic back up track team. We would mess around on the track with her training and I tried many times to drop her or maybe I should say, we men would take turns, tried to drop her but she hangs tough and stays put right on our wheels. I am sure if I was racing against her, I wouldn't stand a chance.

We have several strong women that ride with us. They can maintain pace as good as anyone with their only weakness coming out of turns where they just can't accelerate as well.

I was in a very small race this weekend away from my usual club ride (13 people) with 2 women in the group. It was 63 miles, I hadn't really trained lately so it was just a ride for me and I finished 45 minutes behind the winner. I checked the finish time and the women were in the top 5 with a finishing average of 23.2 MPH over 63 miles. Pretty impressive to me especially with such a small group.

Dang, 23 for 63 miles is fast. Hills?

You still race? Racing has cross my mind several times but the time commitment is what kept me from doing it. I want to ride the track again mixed in with some local crit racing. Doesn't getting back up into speed out of a turn require so much interval trainint. It sure hurts like heck.

Some of the strongest riders in our gravel group are women. One is about 100 pounds and climbs like a goat. Several others come from running/triathlon and have incredible aerobic engines. They are a lot more fun to draft behind than the guys! :)

There was also a pro female rider who lived here several years ago. When she'd show up you knew you had your work cut out for you.

And there are some 'not so obvious' perks from drafting women.;)

I always kept my eyes on their rear wheel and never overlap it. You can cross a wheel and fall, ya know.

Mildly hilly. I rarely race and if I do, I just treat it like a hard ride since I’ll be finishing way back.

Last Sunday's ride. We are getting close to riding season being done. I'll get a few more in if I can.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1762972654.jpg

Cycling is healthy at any age until you get run over by a bread truck

Today was an unusually warm and dry day! So much fun to ride at noon with a group.

(Apparently, this is the last dry day for a pretty long while...)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1762985656.jpg

Typically firemen work 12h on and 48h off, so his work week looks different than ours......

Even so this is inspiring!

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Not on topic but our FD is 24 on, 24 off for 3-4 days followed by 4 to 6 days off. Repeat.

Each of the 3 shifts, A, B and C, work 9 to 12 24 hour days per month. In a 3 month span it all evens out.

Very similar in the city I worked for, so a long bike commute could be very doable for that schedule; be tough for a normal job’s work week.

I've had the opportunity to commute by bike for at least 2 jobs.
Best and worst times ever. (Mostly best):D

Enjoy! :)

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Must be chilly.... ^^^^^

(that joke is so old)

Nine Riders. One Airplane. A World First.

Nine riders from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe just made history, becoming the first cyclists to tow a plane into flight using pure human power.

The team hit 54km/h and averaged 650 watts over a 90-second all-out effort to launch pilot Andy Hediger and his airplane into the sky.

Engineering mastermind Dan Bigham guided the operation as the riders stayed locked together in a specially designed harness, holding a perfectly straight line while delivering maximum power. The challenge? Balancing the forces between all nine cyclists to keep the group unified during the intense effort.

A groundbreaking moment where cycling meets aviation—powered entirely by human effort.

The riders:
Florian Lipowitz
Callum Thornley
Davide Donati
Nico Denz
Jordi Meeus
Tim Van Diyke
Laurence Pithie
Gijs Schoonvelde
Adrien Boichis

<iframe width="718" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lD_LvvByOeM" title="Attempting to Launch a Plane by Bike" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think this could affect your rate of aging as a cyclist.

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Finished a 70 mile ( about 67-68 really) group ride this morning. I normally drive there because I don't want to ride up my hill home. It a mile straight up. Rode from my house and did 50 rolling at about 22-25 avg. I was toasted by 40 and suffered all the way back to the end. I finished with the pack but there were some young punk pushing the pace all the way.

This dumb ass latched on somewhere with a tri-bike. Idiot can't hold his line and what is it about recording for all to see? He took out his phone while we were cooking down the road filming. Weaved over some cracks on the road and caused a crash. Dumb azz.

The group I ride with is pretty strict about no tri-bikes or aero bars and bad cycling gets you a reprimand and if that doesn't work, you're out.