OBC, Cedarburg-Myra

Wow it has been a long time since my last post! I am doing this because I feel that it is necessary. So, the weather has been considerably better the last few days. Now the 2015 racing season is approaching really fast.
A week ago Team Extreme had a "road" meeting to talk about specific WCA races that should be attended and a weeknight/weekly training rides. For the WCA races it was all the local races of course, for example Velo Trocadero Menomonee Park Crit, Sussex Crit, and some others. The weeknight training ride was voted to try to them on Wednesday night at the OBC rides. Only because it seems that a good portion of the team is normally there.
Last night was the official start of the Wednesday night OBC rides. Before it started Team Extreme riders had a little chat on what we were to do. I suggested to let the group roll out and that we would work on pace lining. As the group left so did a couple of the Team Extremer's, I guess I should have been a bit more specific on how long I wanted to wait before we rolled out. We started by soft pedaling and eventually those Extremer's waited for us. The group was able to get a pretty good sizable lead. This is exactly what I wanted, and felt would work the best to achieve a smooth pace line.
We pace lined well and we were practicing on rotating and learning where to be during the pace line and what a pace line pace should be like. Eventually we were able to see the group ahead of us. It was a accordion affect with them as we would get closer on the down hills and they would pull away a little on the up hills. We eventually caught them and passed them on Decorah Rd just outside of West Bend. We decided to do the extended version of the route.
Some of the group eventually worked there way into our pace line. They were hesitant at first and stayed behind us, but this didn't last long. Then our pace line didn't work so well. You get people that have no idea how a pace line is suppose to work. You get people that just don't have the strength to be in the front. Pace lines should be a steady medium to hard effort. You get people that draft and then when you get to an up hill and they decide to crush it and that just screws up the rhythm. I don't like to go super hard on the climbs and then coast on the down hills. The slower you climb the more energy you save to keep pedaling and go even fast on the down hills. This process is faster in the long run, you will be able to ride further faster. Makes sense?
The weather was great especially for April 1st. The group was pretty good sized, but I thought there would have been more people. It was great seeing some of the faces from last year. And looking forward to it again next week. We might decide to do something different. Maybe we just sit in and crush it on the climbs? Now that would be funny!