Dawn Patrols

The first of the season’s Dawn Patrols is coming up fast. (Look for details at the end of this post.) I get asked about these. “Why go riding so early?” is the most common question.

The History: Some years ago, when I started riding brevets, I realized that, on the longer events, I’d be riding at night, and riding when fatigued or sleep deprived. I felt the need to simulate this condition in training. So I started getting up stupid early, and going out to do some moderately long rides. Sunday morning worked best for this, although I did these on other days too.

I found some interesting things. It’s amazingly quiet out at that time of the night. Night riding has its own challenges, and rewards. Traffic wasn’t a major issue. In fact, traffic was all but non-existent! Cool.

I don’t know when I started thinking of these as “Dawn Patrols.” The phrase comes from World War I, when flyers would rise before dawn, and take off into the early dusk, to be able to patrol the skies as the sun rose. And of course there’s Snoopy and the Red Baron, doing their Dawn Patrol bit.

At any rate, I was out riding in the small hours of the morning, and turning toward home, just about dawn. That sets the stage.

I talked about what I was doing with some friends, and to my surprise, several expressed an interest in doing this kind of ride with me. Thus was born the, “Dawn Patrol.” I’ve done these every winter since.

There is not a real, repetitive schedule to the rides. I try to get one or two in each month. As the season progresses, the rides start earlier. The idea is to become accustomed to riding for long periods of time, in the cold and dark. It works. And in the words of the sage Bobke, “We’re getting tough and buildin’ character.”

Over the years a format has grown up. We meet either in Fayetteville, or Peachtree City, in the parking lot of a pancake restaurant. We go out and ride in the night. At the beginning of each ride, we ride someplace that one would ordinarily avoid. We can do GA-54, right through PTC, for instance. There is no traffic! The centers of Tyrone, Palmetto, Fayetteville, and Peachtree City are magical in the Christmas season. We stop somewhere around dawn at some place where we can get some coffee. Then we ride back to the start. The post ride pancake breakfast is entirely optional, but usually well attended.

Riding pace is interesting. Night group rides tend to be group rides. That is, the group tends to stay together for safety and mutual support. The pace is strong enough to stay warm, but not overly vigorous. We don’t leave stragglers behind. We have, over the years, dropped a couple of folks off early. The structure of the rides is loose enough to allow this. No one rides as fast at night, and no one rides as fast in cold weather. These tend to be base building rides. They are good sociable rides. We tend to have lots of camaraderie, along with occasional bouts of mutual survival work.

Along the way, we’ve seen it all. Occasionally we have sudden turns in the weather, requiring an abrupt change of plans and routing. Usually, we end up cancelling out on at least one of these every Winter. That last is because it’s simply too cold to attempt.

What should one expect from a Dawn Patrol? The rides will get progressively longer as we go through the Winter. The idea is to ride so that we reach a convenient coffee stop at just about dawn. We stop for coffee, and then ride another hour or so to get back to the start. Consider, dawn will be between 07:00 and 07:30. The start times are posted, so you can figure about how long each ride is. Note that I’m doing this in terms of time and not mileage. Each route will be different. Expect to deal with differing road conditions, from four-lane highway, to occasional stretches without pavement. Some of the routes have us doing the last bit of return on Peachtree City’s recreational paths.

I hope you’ll come out and join us.

Details:

Conditions: Ride goes at any temp above 20 degrees F, and all weather. (Yes, we’re still doing it if it snows.)

Pace: Night Time Touring, approx 13 mph avg.

Requirements: This is serious night riding. Helmets, strong headlights, good strong taillights, reflective vests or sashes, reflective ankle bands are required. (Additional reflective and lighting equipment is a good idea.)

Strong Suggestion: Gear up as if you were on a tour and self-supporting.

Dates/Locations:

• 6 Dec. 05:00 Fayetteville IHOP parking lot.
• 17 Jan. 04:30 PTC IHOP
• 7 Feb. 04:00 Fayetteville IHOP
• 28 Feb. 04:00 PTC IHOP