What’s the Ride Captains’ role on the road?
The Ride Captains role on the road, first and foremost, is to keep the group safe. They are there to work with everyone to keep the pace moving, allow enjoyment of the route and navigate everyone according to time and distance.
What’s Group 1 all-about in a nutshell
A fast paced, team tempo effort where you’ll feel as though you’re part of a well oiled machine and, of course, there’s scope for some leg burning efforts and a bit of good natured competition on the race sections.
What average speed will Group 1 be aiming for?
We will be averaging around 30km/hour depending on weather conditions. This is not flat out but a steady tempo pace that will be set on the front.
That’s a bit faster than I manage on my own, should I be worried?
Definitely not, closed roads and group riding allow for much higher average speeds than a solo rider. If you can average anything over 28km/hr on your own then you will be absolutely fine for any group riding 30-35km/hr average on flat terrain.
How important are group riding skills and how can I learn them?
Essential! A fast moving bunch is not the place to try and learn them so, if you mostly ride solo or in a small group, try to join some club runs or, even better, some of the Hotchillee Monthly rides.
https://www.hotchillee.com/hotchilleehandbook-group-riding-tips/
I’m raring to race, how does that work each day?
We will have multiple race sections on each day which are categorised Climbing (red) sections on uphill terrain and Sprint (green) sections on short flat terrain. There is also a (yellow) section of undulating terrain on on Day 1, this along with the points awarded for the red and green will determine the Overall Winner in Paris.
An accumulation of points across the different sections will determine the winners. More details of how this will work will be available closer to the event and described again at the start of each day.
Any tips for training for the race sections?
I would highly suggest doing high intensity interval training in the final two months leading up to the event whereby you alternate very hard efforts for a short amount of time (<5min) with rest sections to mimic the type of effort you will need to put in.