This is a chance for members of Team CSD to have a say.

 James’ 3^rd Spinneys Dubai 92 Build-Up Ride Report.

The third build up ride saw the venue move to the Al Qudra cycle path. The car park was already busy when I arrived at just after 5, and was soon completely full. The Revolution team was out in force with over 20 members taking part. We had a warm-up ride to the first roundabout and back, and then the anticipation of the start. It was great to see the start area packed with riders; over 500 people according to Premier Timing.

At just after 6am, MC Stewart got proceedings under way, with the participants being started in waves according to the speed that they wanted to ride at. The Revolution squad decided to go with the 38-40km/h group, and immediately had a large group of riders join us.

As always seems to be the way, the car park area was completely still, but a couple of k’s down the path, and we were riding into a strong head wind. The Revolution team got onto the front and with the expert guidance of Des Myburgh, we decided to stay on the front and set the pace. This involved regular rider changes on the front (except for Des!) to keep the pace high. The end of the stick couldn’t come soon enough, with only a brief respite before turning back into the wind and heading up towards the solar farm and the turn around point.

Again Des was immense up this section, staying on the front while the other side of the peleton completed a whole rotation and joined Des back on the front again! Finally we reached the turn around, and this was completed without incident.

Now we were hoping for a wind assisted return to the finish. However, back towards the stick it was not quite this straight forward – the wind changed slightly leaving us riding into a side wind. However we battled through, and were soon onto the stick where the wind was more favourable, and the speed increased accordingly.

This was one of the best team rides I have been involved with, everyone worked together, calling out hazards, swapping sides for some shelter from the wind, and got a great result. The team finished only 2 minutes behind the fastest time with an average speed of 39km/h, occupied position 20 onwards, had the top 3 fastest ladies, and everyone I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s to the next one!