We had a very good spin this evening, 49km @ 32.2kph. It was notable in that it included Jamie Blanchfield of Premier Endurance, who was along to observe cycling technique and the dynamics of our group spin. We had eight out, excluding Jamie, fairly evenly balanced between the faster and the less fast cyclists. The general consensus was that it was one of the best and smoothest spins we’ve had in a long time, despite the mixed abilities within the group. Some of the faster riders would have been comfortable at a faster pace, and different riders had different subjective experiences of the spin, but nobody was overstretched, and overall there was a lot of satisfaction with the spin. Mind you, and this is a personal opinion only, but I suspect that the spin might have been less smooth and the average speed higher if the A pupils hadn’t felt that the Inspector was closely observing them!

Jamie, despite his tender years, is an experienced and calm coach, and outlined some areas for improvement in respect of individual technique, e.g. cross-chaining and speed on climbs, but more pertinently had some constructive observations of the group dynamic e.g. half-wheeling, first 10 minutes being too fast, etc. It led into a constructive group discussion of the core issue of mixing fast and less fast cyclists in the one group. Jamie outlined a number of possible solutions, all of which have been implemented (with varying degrees of success) across other cycling clubs. The concept of a Group Captain for the the cycling group(s) was one of the recommendations.

To those members who couldn’t make it this evening, you missed out. The good news is that Jamie will be attending next Thursday’s spin, on basically the same route (not too long). Hope you can make it.