LAST MINUTE TECHNIQUE ADVICE

I’ve mentioned these things in previous posts, but here’s some practical advice on a couple of “cooperation items.” I’ve organized this stuff to match the different types of riders.

Climbers: You can really beat up the other folks on a ride. Your ability to ascend on the wings of doves is annoying and disheartening to your fellows. At the same time, it really buts you to slow on the hills, and in some cases, it’s down right painful. So how do you manage to not burn your tender knees going slower, and still not earn the total contempt and enmity of everyone else? Simple. Use just a little discipline and a bit of strategy. As you see a good climb coming up ahead, drop to the back of the group. Let a gap open up before the climb. Then gradually close up on the group as the hill (or mountain) comes on. If you close completely, please do not pass the group. This practice is demoralizing. What you might do is slow down for a few seconds, let the gap open again, and re-close it.

Descenders: You love the screaming descent. You can find another one or two miles per hour on even the slightest decline. If it’s steep, you will drop it like a fighter plane. You’d dive down a cliff, if you could find one. You actually scare the bejabbers out of most of the people you ride with. They like coasting down a hill too, but you come barreling past as if the other riders were standing still. The problem is that you will use power to get down a hill. What you don’t see is that this is a waste of energy, and you tend to panic the other riders into following your style. On this ride you should sit back and relax. Try sitting up. Become acquainted with your inner brake lever. You might even try something similar to the advice to climbers. Drop to the back as the descent appraches. Allow a bit of a gap to open. Then close it gently on the descent.

Sprinters: You are all about power and speed… in the short term. You love to jump on another rider and crush them. Given the right circumstances, you can even beat a climber, once or twice, on an uphill sprint. The problem is that heavy accelerations waste huge amounts of energy. You are the drag racer of the cycling world. You’re super-fast for the short run, but you can come up dry in a longer ride. Worse, you create gaps in the group, which others must then expend energy to close. Rest assured, you are beautiful, and your particular party trick is fun to watch, but save it for the weekly club ride. Just sit in and enjoy the scenery for a change. You won’t regret it.

Diesels: You live for the long flat, the series of low rollers, or possibly the long shallow “grinder” climb. If you can get up near the top of the gear range life is good. You can “motor” along at a really impressive rate. You think people like you because you can pull, and to a certain extent it’s true. But the problem is that you can really grind your fellow riders down. Sure, there’s an advantage to tucking in behind another rider. It’s something like 20% less effort at the same speed. But if you’ve pulled the train up to 25% more than their best sustained speed, your fellows are getting tired real fast. By all means use your talents to pull the others along, but do so with a bit of moderation. Watch behind you carefully. If a gap starts to open, slow down.

In short, folks, this is not a race. The idea is to work together, combining our strengths to bring everyone to the end of the day together.

Current Weather Outlook: A strong cold front should move through the area on Tuesday afternoon. This will give us a clear skies, and a bit cooler than usual temps. The outlook for Saturday is still stable, with lows at ride time in the mid 50s, and highs in the mid 70s under partly cloudy skies. Near ideal.