My first ride on a road bike!

Well the day came around for my usual Wednesday ride but today was different as I was allowed to ride my husbands Giant TCR Advanced 3!

For the last six months I have been riding my Mountain bike with road tyres, it has served me well on my weekly rides and got me round my first Bupa Challenge back in January and I do still love it.

I did not want to stray too far from home on my first ride so I thought an up and back routine would be a good start on roads I know and where help can be easily sort it I get stuck or stack it.

First job was to move the seat height with that done I started a very wobbly rode down to Moana. I had to spend a few minutes figuring out which way to change the gears up and down. Next challenge I had was trying to signal to the traffic that I wanted to turn at junctions, I was very wobbly to start with.

The headwind was terrible and very nearly stopped but I thought actually this is loads easier than riding my MTB so I will keep persevering and see if I can be more comfortable on the bike. My garmin was playing up a bit but I could still see I was moving faster than I normally would do into a head wind.

At Moana I thought this is going really well and thought I would have a go at strava segment Moana, esplanade north to Port Noarlunga. I pushed hard but not full on all the way back to the river having to slow down behind a car on the downhill. Time to turn around and do it all again, into the head wind I just settled into a gentle ride back down to Moana again.

At Moana for the second time the Garmin lost satellites and shut down got it going again but I did not know that it was not recording. This time I wanted to really attack the segment and see how fast I could go, pushing harder all the way. Glancing down at the garmin I was really surprised at how fast I was going and really hoped I had recorded a good time.

It turns out I have beaten a few of my fellow club riders and also my husband - do you think he will lend me his bike again?

Took a minute and half off my previous best on the MTB, I know I had a good tailwind but that can't be all of it can it? I can't wait to be allowed out again on it. It will be my bike of choice until I have saved up the dollars for my own.

Tags: first, ride, road

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Comment by RD6 on March 21, 2012 at 13:01: You will be surprised how fast you go coming off MTB to a roadie, due to that your legs have strengthened from riding that 15+kgs MTB as its paid off dividends once you ride on a roadie. Having said that plus tailwind helps, Phil you now have to work harder now on the segment :D

You picked a good day for it and well done

Comment by Matt Koukourou on March 21, 2012 at 13:06: You know that you have no chance of Phil letting you ride it again if you keep beating his Strava times!!!

Comment by RD6 on March 21, 2012 at 13:09: I have visions of Michelle going to her LBS asap and putting down a deposit for a roadie and paying it off weekly

Comment by Matt Brennan on March 21, 2012 at 13:32: a new lead out for the group rides!!...if we can keep up...

Comment by Matt Koukourou on March 21, 2012 at 13:38: Yes Rob reckon you're right, most searched sites on the crick pc, bikeexchange, giant.

Matt we wil never keep up!

Comment by Phil Crick on March 21, 2012 at 14:12: @RD6 it's not just me that's going to have to work harder, she's only 20 seconds behind you! And for the rest of you, she'll be allowed to borrow the TCR until we sort her out with a roadie, it's quite amusing watching you lot squirm, she's fast already and going to get faster...

Comment by Peter Hill on March 21, 2012 at 17:12: Michelle, as soon as you ween yourself off the MTB you will begin to loose your strength. It will be all downhill from there. No improvement. Like a heavyweight lifter who is only allowed to pick up shreds of paper. It will be sheer misery, trying to make yourself faster by fluffing around with new casettes, new rims, compacts, conti 4000's, late Friday nights at the track...

(have I got you scared yet? Us old Muddy-fuddy-duddies will look very redundant trying to keep up with you!)

Comment by Patrick O'Kane on March 21, 2012 at 17:13: The seat height, did you move it up or down?

A good effort Michelle, Phil says you can borrow the bike anytime, but you can't take the garmin next time ;)

Comment by Michelle Crick on March 21, 2012 at 17:36: @Peter no I have not scared myself yet, it was interesting being blown side ways

@Pat I moved the seat down so I guess the TCR is a good fit for me :-)

My first ride on a road bike!

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