Regan Pringle Stunt Double

Tonight was my first Thursday Night Ride. Thursday Night Ride you say, yes, every thursday for the past 100 years (well not quite, but a long time) a large group of fast dudes get together, rain or shine all year, and the testosterone flies. I've been hearing stories about these rides for two years from Regan and I finally decided I need to try one of these infamous rides out. Unfortunately Regan was stuck at work, so I was his stunt double for the evening. My Mom would be very proud of me, riding with 20+ spandex clad men ;)

Ya, 20+, I'd say closer to 30 people, one of the largest group rides that I've ever been on. The typical start to this ride is up and over Cairn Park, a small park in the middle of Esquimalt, then we headed out of town. I won't even try to describe where we were, cause I was completely lost for more then half of the ride. It's a great way to find new trails around Victoria.

Somewhere in the back stretches of the trails, we managed to loose half the group and I found myself with a group of 12 of really, really fast guys climbing up the backside of Finnlyason arm. I was out of my comfort zone a couple of times on the road, definitely, but that's exactly what I needed to work on. Once we hit the trails around Thetis Lake on the way back into town, the pace really started jumping. A couple guys attacked off the front....all I could see was the backside of Johnny Fokema, Carter Hoovey and Tom Skinner. I managed to slip into a group with Troy Woodburn and a tall guy from Oak Bay (sorry guy).....And here is the training that I really needed!!! Pinning it for 20 mins on the Goose (haha, the awesome recreational trail through Victoria)....with jumping efforts to grab back onto the back of groups and pulling through when it was my turn...yup, road racing essentially. It seems that a lot of the racing that I've done this year has turned into more of a road style race, so this was perfect and painful.

Rolled home after almost 3 and a half hour evening ride, covering just under 60 km...ya! Yikes. And Regan had a wicked pasta super waiting for me.....now, I'm going to drool all night, so glad I have a recovery day tomorrow!!!

Thanks TNR guys for letting this girl ride with you!!!