First time riding in a Paceline

Today I was going out with the group that Terje has been riding with a couple of times, and I was looking forward to trying out riding in a paceline for the first time. However, first everything went south for me as I forgot my helmet at home. So while the others started from Vågsbotn I went to MX Sport and bought a new helmet. I needed one anyway as the paddings and straps on my old helmet was very loose, however, the timing was not good, but typical for me my wife would say :)

Once I had the new helmet I drove to Arna and parked there. As I expected, the group had already passed Arna so I got on the bike and started riding on my own towards Trengereid. Just before I got to the decent down to Trengereid I meet Terje and the rest of the group coming back.

I managed to turn around and get into the Paceline as they slowed down a bit waiting for me.

Getting into the Paceline at the back I was in the fast lane first and I had a bit of problem getting close enough to the rider in front of to take advantage of the drag, so I struggled quite a bit until I was finally at front. At the front did one of the many rookie mistakes, as soon as the guy in front of me switch to the slow lane I pressed down hard on the pedals and accelerated and stayed in front for to long. However, the other riders in the Paceline gave me constant hints to help me get the hang of it and finally I felt like I was doing ok and contributing to keep the rotation going.

This group is a group with a goal of 5h 30min for Bergen-Voss, and they are all in much better shape then both Terje and myself. The Paceline was doing 30-35kph on the flats and slightly slower in the small "hills", and according to SportsTrackLive statistics of the ride we had an average of 30.3kph over a distance of 10km which is impossible for me to do alone. Even though you save a lot of energy in a Paceline, going at 30-35kph and sometimes 40kph is to fast for me and I would not have been able to keep up with them for to long.

As I said this group of riders will do Bergen-Voss in 5h 30min and, therefore, in the first short real climb I was dropped and so I finished the ride back to Arna alone.

During the ride back to the car I realized that riding alone and riding in a group, that can for example do a double Pacline like we did, is incomparable and in two different worlds. I also realized that if I am to get a good finishing time in the Bergen-Voss race I need to sit in a group, especially riding through Hardanger. Therefor, I need to do more of these sessions to get used to it.

However, I do not think I will join this group again this season as they are going at a speed that is to hard for me to keep up with over time. Hopefully I can find group with a goal of finishing Bergen-Voss in between 6h 30min and 7h.

All in all this was good fun and a great experience, and I got myself a new helmet ;)