With the club training spins set to resume this weekend, the committee have been working on a plan to categorise and label the various groups and routes taken on organised cycles this winter.

In conjunction with Dave McLoughlin’s detailed ‘short’ ‘medium’ and ‘long’ routes which are available to download from the General Info box on the top right of the home page, Peter Gerrard has formulated the following table to categorise riders into groups relevant to their ability and goals.

The purpose of the document and the change in the labelling of spins formerly known as ‘slow’ ‘medium’ and ‘fast’ is to assist riders in finding the right group.

The committee have noticed that many riders find it difficult to take the leap out of the beginner group because of a fear of the quality in other groups while there are sometimes riders in the fastest groups on the road who are a little out of their depth. Clear colour code labelling of groups by ability and season goals should help avoid this.

More often than not last winter there were more than three organised Orwell groups on the road on Sunday mornings so the likelihood is that more than one group will be embarking on the same route. The exact workings of the plan will become clearer once the spins get under way.

The speeds for each group listed in the table are estimates and will vary according to group size and weather conditions. In addition it should be noted that the start of winter training will be quite a bit slower than the end and that there will be no intervals or speed drills in any of the groups until January at the earliest.   

To pose questions on how the scheme will operate, see the following thread on the forum.