David,
Question on your Item #2: How do you define "gap"... 1 bike length? 2?
3?
I suspect this item may have come to mind because I was the rider who
"aggressively forced" someone (you?) back out of a "gap" on last
night's ride. Sorry about that!
My take on what happened is this: I was riding behind someone who was
on their very first group ride. In the interest of safety, I was
leaving a bit more space behind them than I might otherwise, but it
was no more than one bike length. The rider who slipped into that
space didn't signal. I didn't want to see a "parade" of other riders
passing me and slipping in front of me, so I accelerated along their
right side to assert my position. Again, my apologies, as I am 100%
interested in safe and fun group rides.
I agree that aggressive riding is not appropriate for this ride.
Sometimes the instincts take over. :-)
Bob Curtiss
On Apr 9, 2010, at 11:34, David Bender <[email protected]> wrote:
Morning Gyros,
We had a great turnout last night of about 15 riders, some returning
riders from last year and a few newbie's to the ride. Thank you to
all those that braved the gusty dark conditions last night.
Remember: If you have not signed a waiver yet, please make sure you
have one before next week. There are forms available in the Trek
Store.
Due to the pending weather we cut the ride short and made it back
before it got too dark and ended up with about 26 miles. It turns
out we averaged 17.8 last night which is not the posted ride speed.
I have to accept responsibility as ride leader for that oversight. I
was riding my back up bike, since the Madone is in the shop, and the
wheels I was using was not calibrated for the bike. My average
speed; which I was watching throughout the ride was staying around
16.8 - 17.0 so I figured we were doing pretty good on the pace.
Turns out I was off so the pace ended up higher than I planned.
Sorry for that. I plan to have my other bike back next week so I'll
do much better on keeping the pace as posted.
Thanks also to guest ride leaders Hal and Steve for helping with the
group.
The Thursday ride will continue to be a learning oriented ride and
not so much a speed ride. We will eventually get the pace up to
18-19 and increase the distance to +-34 miles but the main effort of
this ride will be to improve everyone's knowledge and confidence
riding in a group. Although I'm not an accomplished Cat 1,2,3,4,5,+
racer I have had the opportunity to learn group riding concepts
that, along with some other ride leaders, we can all share with new
riders as well as some old dogs.
2 points to take away from last nights ride:
1. If a rider has found themselves out in the wind and wants to get
back in the pace line, they should indicate with a hand gesture
pointing to the spot they want to get in. The riders should allow
that rider in and not surge to close the gap and prevent them in.
This is also a safety issue with traffic.
2. If a rider is creating gaps in the pace line then another rider
may safely and with control fill in that gap. The rider making the
gap should not aggressively force that rider out of the spot.
I know when it comes to crits and the TdF these are not the general
courtesies you see but on a weekday club ride they are.
We'll start working on riding a double pace line and maintaining a
steady effort throughout the ride next week. Thanks again for all
the riders who showed up last night. I look forward to a long year
of great rides.
d
The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars
with Hotmail. Get busy.
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