Group Cycling

Most of my cycling is done on my own. Partly this is from choice, because I enjoy being able to take all the decisions about how I'll spend my time on the bike, my speed, my route, the stops I take and so on. But partly it's because cycling clubs tend to be based on sports cycling, whether road racing, time trialling and so on. These clubs have training runs which are much too fast and furious for me nowadays.

Social cycling groups are rather harder to find, at least in these parts. I have occasionally ridden with CTC groups, but even they tend to be a bit pacy. I ride about once a month with a group from ByCycle, the Perth-based cycle campaign group. We usually cover about 30 miles or so at a very sedate pace, stopping for all sorts of reasons and none.

Sunday past we had just such a ride in Glenalmond, on a day that felt very much like spring had sprung. We stopped to watch a group of enthusiasts flying model planes and later in the day stopped to chat with a different group whose thing is model railways. The 30 miles or so took us well over four hours to complete, which I regard as a very satisfactory pace for a retired gent on a Sunday morning!