“What’s a squirrel?” Liz Schleeper asks, and surveys the group of riders.

There are 12 of us: 10 lanky, spandexed women and two guys, including myself. We straddle a variety of bike frames, mostly medium-value racing frames, nothing fancy, no carbon-fiber in sight, but all designed for riding fast.

I worry I am the least fit among them, and I feel like a total noob. Liz, the leader of the Wednesday rides that leave at 6 pm from Conte’s Bikes in Norfolk, is starting me with the C-pace riders. She stands above her petite Cannondale road bike, taut-skinned and angular, like a woman chipped out of a small chunk of granite, and grins as she lectures us.

“Someone who darts in and out of traffic?” replies one woman.

“Sort of. A squirrel is someone who can’t hold the line,” says Liz. “Someone who wiggles all over and steers like this,” she shakes her handlebars and wobbles a bit to demonstrate. “Try to keep in a line. Don’t be a squirrel. What’s a hammerhead?”

A kind of shark? I think, but I keep my mouth shut.

“Someone who likes to push it faster all the time, keeps moving up the pace,” Liz explains. “It doesn’t happen in the B and C rides too much, but you get it riding with the guys in the A pace. Once you find your pace, stick with it. Try not to speed up or slow down.”

I vow I will not be a hammerhead on this ride. I’m here to fit in. To learn.

I’ve been a cyclist for many years. I’ve worked as a bike messenger, even ridden a hundred-mile century. I love to bike and I try to do it as often as possible. But I’ve never blended into a “paceline,” the fast-riding groups of would-be racers that cruise the streets in single-file, hunched over the handlebars and pedaling like locomotives. I’ve never before stepped into the world of cycle racing, or tried to ride with a team.

“What’s bonking?” asks Liz. An uncomfortable silence ensues.

“Riding too close to the guy in front of you?” I offer.

“No,” she says. “It’s hitting the wall, like a marathon runner, when your engine cuts out and you have to fight just to turn the pedals. I keep some Gatorade with me, for the electrolytes, so I don’t bonk. If you’re going to ride more than two hours, make sure you have some goo or some food so you keep some calories in you. What’s dropping off?”

“When you fall off the end of the line and can’t keep up,” says a woman.

“That’s right. On this ride, if you drop we’ll send someone back to catch you. We won’t leave anyone behind. But on some rides there’s a sort of policy of ‘we’re not going to stop if you drop.’”

The group splits in two. The tauter-muscled folks line up for the B-pace ride behind Susan Pollack, an experienced racer decked out in a helmet, wrap-around mirror shades, a red Tri-Power team jersey and spandex tights. The B group leaves first, taking a slightly longer route, about 20 miles, that will intersect with ours. The C-pace riders mount our bikes and follow Liz onto Llewellyn Drive, following roads headed North and East, making our way toward the airport. I ride behind Liz for a while, watching her glance over her shoulder like a mother goose with her brood in tow as the line wobbles along behind. This is a C-pace ride, after all, and although I feel like a newbie, I’m actually better off than some of the others in the group. One woman, the only one riding a hybrid city bike instead of a racing-style frame, struggles to keep up. A more experienced woman in the group actually puts a hand on her lower back and pushes her along for blocks at a time.

Liz Schleeper, who is powerfully fit at 43 years old, rides in many different kinds of events, including road, mountain and cyclocross races. She can, and does, ride with A-pace groups whenever she wants. Generally an A pace refers to maintaining a speed of over 22 mph. It can go higher though, and usually does, according to Liz. By comparison, the professional riders in the Tour de France typically maintain speeds of 25 mph when riding solo and around 30 mph in the peloton, where drafting and lead changes allow them to travel faster. That fast-moving peloton, the ultimate paceline, is the model for A-pace riders everywhere. A-pacers prefer to ride in Virginia Beach, where they can find the long smooth roads they need to maintain high speeds over long distances. Norfolk has too many stop signs and intersections, too many bumpy old roads, to host a quality A-pace ride.

B-pace groups, on the other hand, are usually made up of a mix of women and men of various ages. They ride in the 18-22 mph range, which is still pretty fast for the inexperienced cyclist. C-pace is the slowest, with a target speed of 14-18 mph. Liz refers to the C-pace ride she’s leading as a “development ride.” She sees it as a way to bring more women, particularly, into the cycling fold. Women like to get a little instruction, to tackle new activities with a little assistance, she has found, whereas many men leap straight into the A-pace scrum and try to tough it out. She views her C-pace ride as a kind of tryout. The new riders either pick up the paceline skills and move up to the B group shortly, or they discover that it’s not for them and drop out after one or two rides.

Continue reading, as the riders take on the streets of Norfolk.