West Florida Wheelmen Wednesday Night Ride by Tara

No matter where you live there's always a weekly World Championship Ride.  In other words, a balls-to-the-wall, ride til your heart explodes, vomit in your mouth, quad thrasher.  In Greensboro it was The Farmer's Market Ride, in Wilmington it was The Wrightsville Beach Loop (and sometimes the first 25 miles of the Sunday century ride).  Here in Pensacola, we have the Wednesday Night Wheelmen Ride.  I've been told that "you haven't really ridden in Pensacola until you do the Wednesday Night Wheelmen Ride."  Well, now that I'm a 3-time veteran, I can tell you that this sh*t is no joke.

The very first time I ever went to this ride I knew I was in for some hurt when the organizer, laying down the ground rules, announced, "This IS a drop ride."  Everyone gathers for this ride at 5:15 in the big parking lot behind WSRE on College Blvd. just 200 yds from the light on 12th Ave.  Roll out is at 5:30 sharp.  I find the gathering of riders quite humorous b/c it reminds me of this scene from Anchorman:

when all the news gangs roll up and prepare to kick the crap out of each other.  See the similarities:

Each team rides to the ride in their team kits, in preparation for battle.

The ride starts off deceptively slow....a pack of 30+ riders going 17-18 mph and it lulls you into a false sense of security.  At the back of the pack, you're thinking, "this isn't so bad."  Just wait.  About 15 minutes into the ride, the ride really starts with an all-out 1.5-mi sprint (I'm guessing on distance here) on a very curvy road by the airport (Jerry Maygarden Rd).  Everyone else freakin' flies around the corners

looking like this:

I'm more like this:

So, unfortunately I usually fall to the back of the pack during the initial sprint.  (But, I will say it's helping me improve my bike handling & cornering skills.)

Then, there's a long section of flats and false flats.  This is the really tough part to stay with the A group.  I feel like if you can make it past Johnson Ave then you have accomplished a lot!  After that comes the hills.  Yes, there are some actual real hills here!  A nice series of rollers, where you can tuck in and get a bit of a reprieve on the descents.  However, by this time in the ride you can probably taste blood in the back of your throat and you are probably dehydrated because it's almost impossible to find time to drink water in between your gasps for air and precious oxygen.  Your final nail in the coffin is the last big hill up Langley Ave.  People like to sprint up this; I think winner takes KOM (not sure b/c I've never been remotely close to being the first person up it).

So, you make it to the top of that last big hill and you start to think you've done it.  But, it's not over yet.  There's still time for one more tour down Jerry Maygarden.  Your best bet is to latch onto someone's wheel and don't look at your speed.  Maygarden dumps out onto Summit and people like to have some fun on this road - it's the last real chance to launch an attack and challenge others to a sprint.  Now, once you get to the end of that road, then congratulations you have pretty much finished the ride!!!

Everyone meets back in the WSRE parking lot to recap the evening's main event.  I've heard that it's not uncommon for riders to rehash the ride's happenings for the next few days.

So, the gist of it for me is that it's really damn hard.  I keep coming back because of the peer pressure - just kidding, I keep coming back because it is fun (in a sick way) and I know it has to make me faster and a better all around cyclist.  I have been riding my Felt F75 road bike on this ride because I feel like it's safer than bringing the tri bike out (although plenty of people successfully rock this ride on their tri bikes - kudos to you).

I hope I encouraged you to embrace the challenge of this ride and I hope to see you out there next Wed!  Here's what some of my fellow GCCTriathletes have to say about it:

"It's a great mid-week fast tempo ride that EVERYBODY needs to do."  - Patrick

"I was definitely nervous at first and a bit intimidated.  I wanted to push myself and knew I would probably get dropped and I wasn't sure how others would react to me trying to hang with the feast kids.  Everyone has actually been very encouraging and supportive and it may be one of the friendliest sufferfest rides I have ever done."  - Courtney

"It's like an unsanctioned bike race between shops." - Bryan

"As a new rider this ride definitely intimidated me a lot.  The fast paced and technical course that we ride has helped me to become a faster and more confident rider.  The group is very encouraging and looks out for each other which feels great as somebody that is new to cycling."  - Justin

"It's a damn hammer fest!  Kind of like an F1 for cycling."  - Brandon