🚀 Alan the Rocket & the Art of (Not) Chasing 💨 Leeston, Canterbury ☀️

{"raceId":16300050474,"athleteId":2188545,"name":"🚀 Alan the Rocket \u0026 the Art of (Not) Chasing 💨 Leeston, Canterbury ☀️","description":"Crikey, what a day out on the pedals! We kicked off in First Break—nine of us rolling turns nicely, with about 27 in the whole field. Only a minute ahead of Break, and another 1:15 to Scratch, so the pressure was always coming.\n\nEnter: Alan Steel, aka The Rocket. First time riding with us, and let’s just say the lad brought a nuclear motor to a club handicap. Strong as an ox on Red Bull, and probably better suited to Break if we’re being honest. But hey, no complaints on my end—until guilt started setting in.\n\nThe pace was hot from the gun, and the wind was putting on a four-act play:\n\t1.\tSide-tail to start – fast, but twitchy.\n\t2.\tTrue sidewind – classic echelon chaos.\n\t3.\tGlorious tailwind – we were absolutely flying, touching 60 km/h in parts. Felt like we were on a magic carpet.\n\t4.\tBrutal NW headwind – 30 to 40 km/h straight into the chops for the final stretch. Welcome to the pain cave.\n\nBy the time we hit the last leg, the chase groups were nowhere in sight. I turned around, saw empty tarmac, and started feeling like a bit of a burglar—yet again at the front of the handicap. So I tried the ol’ sneaky “miss-a-turn-and-block” trick to give the chasers a sniff. Not sure if it helped much, but it did cause a bit of banter in the group.\n\nDown to six of us in the finale. Alan lit it up in the sprint—no surprise there—and I rolled across in 4th, legs cooked, lungs howling, but buzzing from the ride. One of those races where the wind was just as much a rival as the bunch.\n\nWeather Report: Clear sky, 15°C, and the wind was blowing 15km/h from NW\n\n😨 Overtraining warning\n🐶 Free Training (moderate intensity)\n🚵 Flat ground Ride\n🧀 Fat 54.2%, 🍞 Carb 45.8%\n🕯️ Matches 10.8\n🔋 Maximum discharge 65.5%\n\n\n🔗 https://strava.com/clubs/riduck","distance":63034.5,"elapsedTime":11779,"totalElevationGain":69.0,"type":"Ride","sportType":"Ride","workoutType":11,"startDate":"Oct 30, 2025, 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