John’s Ramblings

After an extremely lazy post-RSVP week (0 miles), Saturday morning had Terri and I again readying to lead a Newcomers ride for Cascade Bicycle Club. This day would be a 20 mile loop of the Kent Valley, mostly on the multi-use trails here.

We had 12 riders show up for the ride on a clear and slightly crisp morning. It was cool enough that I opted for arm and leg warmers at the start of the ride. It was a pretty good group, although we had one rider that was not quite ready for the 20 flat miles. While I led the group at 11 to 12 mph, he was “on the rivet” at about 9. Somewhere around the halfway point a cell phone being answered behind him had him looking around for a hazard, and he lost control of his bike and crashed. He ended up with a bruised hip and sore wrist, but he’s fine. We followed up on him Sunday, and he’s determined to get a better bike, and do more riding.

Public service done, but it made for a bit of a frustrating day for Terri at sweeper. She was to have led most of the ride, but her Cateye bike computer would not turn on at the beginning of the ride, so she would not be able to keep track of her pace for the group. Despite frequent regroupings, and the last leg being less than 5 miles, the group was quite spintered toward the end. After delivering most of the riders to the start point, I doubled back over a mile to collect the next little pod, and Terri had the last group (a couple with the misfortune of having 1 flat, each, on a 20 miler). With my extra doubling-back and herding work, I ended up with 22 miles & change for the day. In our post-ride debrief, we determined that we would take a little stronger line on rider qualifications, and if it looked early-on that a rider wasn’t going to be able to complete the 20 miles, we’d send them back to the start.

On Sunday Terri was determined to spend the morning languishing in bed with coffee and paper. I had seen a ride listed called “Bridging the Gap”, which appeared from the description to be a ride series designed to help riders in the “Moderate” speed category (14 to 16 mph) work their way up to the “Brisk” category (16 to 18 mph). I thought that this would be ideal for me, for while I am pretty comfortable cruising along at 17 or so on the flats, doing it consistently over a longer ride is still a little bit of a challenge.

After a climb right out of the parking lot, the group took off at 18, and pretty much stayed there. The route got hillier, and I started to fall back on the climbing portions. The pace on the flats wasn’t really a problem, but the hills were going to be, apparently. The leader approached me at about mile 9, and I was excused from the group because I couldn’t go fast enough on the climbing portions. Ouch. It’s hard not to see his point, given the fact that we had a rider the day before that we probably should have sent back, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be me the next day. I did some hill intervals on the way home, and when I got back to the house I re-read the ride description thinking that perhaps I had mis-interpreted it.

A weekly ride for those riding easily at a moderate pace and wanting to improve…

I guess I’ll have to devise a method of getting from point “A” to point “B” on my own.

16.8 for the day, 3,002 ytd

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