Come along on the Tune Up Ride

The first “Audax Tune Up Ride” for this series is this coming Sunday (27 July 2008) at 1:00 PM. If you are even remotely interested in doing the Audx Ride in October, you should come along.

Ride details:
Distance: Approximately 45 miles
Start/Finish: In front of Bicycles Unlimited, Peachtree City, GA
Pace: Approximately 12.5 mph overall average
Route: Through Fayette, Coweta, and south Fulton counties. Hilly. There will be two store stops, at approximately 15 miles and 30 miles.
Conditions: Rain or shine. Group will stay together.
What to bring: You. Your bike, in good working order. Sunscreen. Rain jacket (optional). Helmet. A cheerful attitude and a smile.

Purpose:
These “Tune Up” rides are intended to do several things. First and foremost, they are meant to be a fun activity. Overall, they are intended to let a new rider assess their fitness and ability to do this kind of ride. They also provide a skills training opportunity for folks to learn to ride in a self-supporting group. The terrain is deliberately chosen to be a bit more difficult than what will be encountered on the actual Audax Ride. The pace is the same. The idea here is to do something a bit tougher, but for a shorter distance. This gives a rider a good idea of their condition and ability to complete that actual event.

Audax Riding and the spirit of compromise:
Every cyclist has things that they like to do. For some it’s climbing, for others it’s high speed cruising in the flats. It is a difficult thing to mesh these abilities in a group. Why bother? Because there is a magical synergy to group riding. Each of us contributes some of our particular strength, and everyone ends up going a bit farther and a bit faster than they would or could alone.

But there is an important implication to this. It means that each rider must be prepared to slow down a bit in their particular specialty, and to work a bit more on the other aspects. Climbers must ease off a little and resist the urge to leave the less gifted ascenders. Descenders will need to use some brakes. The big diesels will pull in the flats, but they too must be prepared to use a little restraint. In this way everyone stays together.

It is a contest, but not between individuals. Rather, here the contest is between the group and the elements. We win when we all arrive together.

Come on out and give it a try.