Ride Description Tuesday Sport Club Rides The Ride: This group leaves from the Goerke Field House East Parking Lot, between the Field House and Willett Ice Arena, 1000 Minnesota Ave., at 5:30 PM each Tuesday. Depending on those who show up, we ride local routes of 35-60 miles. After a short 3-8 mile warm up, we usually settle into cruise speeds of 20-23mph (no wind, flat terrain), and usually average overall 19-21 mph for the ride. This ride is continuous, except for traffic stops. If riders desire, the group will try to stay together, staying away from paces or accelerations that drop fellow riders. But usually those who show up are interested in being a bit more competitive, and the group "hammers" to see who's strongest, especially on the hills. The Riders: None of us are experts or professional bike riders. We all have differing levels of training, experience, and physical fitness. We share a passion for bike riding on the road, enjoy riding in a group, and seek to become better riders. Most of us ride 3-7 times a week or more and average 150-300 miles per week during the riding season; Tuesday is just one of other solo and group rides each week we participate in during the riding season. While we are all sport cyclists, some of us ride competitively as triathletes, and/or as amateur off-road or road racers. Will You Fit In? If you can average 20+ mph on an out-and-back or circuit solo ride of about 25 miles in which your cruise speeds vary from 18-24 mph as a result of wind, hills, etc., then you should be able to handle riding with this group. Because much of the time is spent on this ride drafting off other riders, you should be able to maintain at least 2 mph above what you can maintain solo. You will find the hills are going to be the greatest challenge to stick with the group. If This Isn't For You: If you think you can handle the speeds, but feel you aren't quite ready for sport group riding (paceline riding), you might want to try coming to the Thursday evening sport ride to pick up some tips and group riding skills. If you think the speeds of this ride are way too challenging, you might try the Monday evening sport ride, the Wednesday evening social/recreational ride, or Heartland's Sunday morning social/recreational rides (see calendar). If you are from the Iola area, you might want to try the group rides that leave from the Fitness & Aquatic Center on Monday and Wednesday evenings. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Ride Leader: Scott Cole 715-340-3683 sdcole_1@charter.net