The ride was about the same as last week's route through Rancho Santa Fe with the addition of "Stud Loop".
Here's a map of the entire route, courtesy of Google Earth.
3-28-09 Route
The little loop de loop on the upper right is called Stud Loop. I've enlarged the map so you can get a feel for what it's like.
Stud Loop (Click on the image)
This particularly scenic route is a joy to ride. The rolling route is situated in such a way that if you ride efficiently, you can do the whole thing while in your big front chain ring. Being in your big ring gives you access to your upper (harder to pedal) gears which are usually only used on downhills or flat straight aways. If you ride the entire loop in the big ring, you qualify as a "stud". So it was another demonstration of the concept of cycling "momentum" that I was talking about on last weeks ride.
The team had a blast riding through this area. Beautiful tranquil riding with no cars in sight. That's what I signed up for!
Not everything was paradise, though. We had a crossing wheels incident just as we left the loop area. Maintaining the proper distance between bikes when riding in a pace line takes concentration, practice and trust. Concentration to stay vigilant and respond the ebbs and flow of speed changes. Practice to expend just enough energy to close any gaps or get back in line after rotating off the front. You also need to trust the riders in front of you to ride smoothly and not "make any sudden moves". Crossing wheels is when the front tire of the rider in the back touches the back tire of the rider directly ahead. It usually results in the rider in the rear getting their front tire suddenly jerked to the side causing an immediate crash. The back tire of the rider ahead is more stable because it is locked in place (no turning side to side) and because it is pinned by the weight of the rider. Crossing wheels is the result of either the rider ahead slowing too quickly not allowing the rider behind to react in time or of the rider behind "spacing out" and losing concentration allowing their speed to increase faster than the rider ahead. This sometimes happens on a slight downhill with the heavier rider in back picking up more speed on the slight decline.
Luckily the crossing wheels happened at very slow speeds so the crash wasn't too bad. The rider that went down had a scraped knee and no damage to the bike. It was a concrete example of the real dangers of falling asleep at the wheel and a good opportunity to give the crossing wheels lecture again. A rider in another group wasn't so lucky. That group had an crossing wheels incident where the rider was spun over the top of their bars, bouncing and flipping head over foot and into the middle of the street in a busy intersection. Luckily there were no cars immediately nearby. Not so luckily was that that rider ended up breaking their arm.
Two crashes in one day. No good :( This is one of those rare occasions where someone gets really hurt. It's very unfortunate and very preventable.
As a mentor, I try to help people have fun but I have to measure that against some "nagging" about riding safely. It can sometimes be awkward but incidents like these make it neccessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment