Last Tuesday, Frank and Dave and I hooked up with the Portland Wheelmen Touring Club for my first large-group ride. We rode about 9 miles into their starting point in Tualatin, where about 30 other riders were assembling for a 35 mile ride.

I'd say the average age of this group is around 25, with only a handful of riders over 30 (including me, Dave, and Frank). We're talking expensive bikes, shaved riding legs, and plenty of adrenalin in that group! I had heard this group was pretty competitive, and that their weekly rides amount to a race ride, but I was still hoping to hold my own with them. This was my first ride with a group larger than 4 people.

The PWTC riders started out with a 15 mph warmup pace back towards Sherwood, and I was thinking "this ain't so bad". In fact, it was a serious rush riding with that many riders! Frank and Dave had warned me to give myself plenty of wiggle room in a group that size, and I quickly found out why after having to slam on my brakes a couple times in a row to avoid running over the guy in front of me. It's a lot harder to tell when they're slowing down because you can't see ahead beyond the rider in front of you. Both times my rear tire swung out as I skidded to avoid a collision, and I heard a couple guys shouting "whoa!" behind me.

Not cool - I was off to an already embarrassing start with this group, but we pressed on and nobody seemed to pay any attention to my rookie blunders.

Now, on a typical day, Frank and Dave and I ride about 45 miles in about 3 hours. That's about a 15-mile-an-hour average, which isn't too bad considering the number of hills we traverse in the Sherwood, Wilsonville, Newberg, and Hillsboro routes we take. On the flats we can usually hold 22 to 23 miles-per-hour for quite a while, and we each rotate to the front of the line every 2 miles or so.

But when this group opened up, they cranked it up to about 27 mph and dropped me in the dust. Ok, I hung with them for a few miles, over some hills that I never thought I could big-ring before, and I passed a few stragglers in the back. But then it was all over and I was sucking wind so hard that I thought my gut was going to split. I still hung in there though with a steady 21 mph pace, and Frank and Dave were kind enough to wait for me ahead a few miles.

After regrouping, the 3 of us set out again at a steady 22 to 23 mph pace and reeled in a few of the Wheelmen at about the 25 mile point. That felt pretty good! We hit 25 mph on a few of the straight-aways and held it for a few miles, so overall I was feeling like we were doing ok for my first fast group ride.

That's when the cramps hit, and so hard that I could not bend my left leg. I had been so focused on hanging with the group, that I had only swallowed half a water bottle of fluids. My muscles were yelling at me "We've had it you bonehead!" and their method of communication was by knotting up my calf muscles into big balls of sheer pain.

I had to clip out on my left shoe and peddled with my right leg for about a half a mile while the cramp held its vice grip on my left leg. The pain was excruciating, and my leg hurt for about 3 days afterwards - a good reminder for me to drink plenty of fluids and stay hydrated!

Riding with the Wheelmen was a great experience overall (though we clearly have some room for improvement before we'll be able to hang with them for an entire ride). We're hoping to hook up with them a few more times this summer.

Here's a link to their riding schedules, with rides just about every day of the week. If you're able to spend some time in the Pacific NW, and have your bike with you, they're definitely worth checking out.