Hi All

What a fantastic week for cycling with firstly Jack Bobridge winning the Individual U23 World Time Trial championship & then to top it off Cadel Evans winning the road race.  I think Cadel really deserves it as he has had a really hard year.  We can all learn a lot from Cadel - when you don’t achieve your original goal put your mind to the next challenge.  If you’re persistent & learn from your mistakes you will in time achieve what you want.

Did you know Melbourne will be hosting the World Championships in 2010 which will be held in Geelong for the first time ever ! & we at ciclismo will be there running a tour so look out for further details.

What is Rolling Through

Rolling Through. This is when you smoothly rotate through riders taking turns at the front.  The rider on the front will not be there for more than a few seconds before the next rider smoothly rolls through and pulls off in front of the guy he just passed. Once the rider rolling through pulls in front of the lead rider, he is now the lead rider and should back off the pace slightly so that the next rider pulling through can come around.   This style of pacelining is done when group efficiency needs to be at its highest. These types of turns work best in small groups or in break away situations.   If the group is too large, you’ll find that the whole group won’t participate in rolling their turns and only 5-10 riders will be doing the work at the front.  This is why breakaways usually fall apart if they are too big.  Everyone will stop working if there are too many riders sitting on.  If it’s just a training ride, most riders don’t mind doing all the work at the front and having others get a free ride at the back.

Etiquette: As above, Don’t be the guy who pulls through too hard.  Unfortunately, there is always someone who does this, so the worst place to position yourself is infront of the strongest rider or that rider pulling through too hard (i.e. in front when pulling through, behind when drifting backwards).  Also, if you’re going to sit in and not work with the group, stay at the back.  Don’t roll through half way and then decide you don’t want to be at the front when your time comes or if your tiring & you can’t pull through. This will mess up the rhythm of the group.  Instead, stay at the back and when it’s your turn to come into the faster moving line, give a verbal indication (like “Yup!”, or “Go”) to the guy in front of you so that he knows that he needs to prepare to get on.