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| John having a good laugh before the ride |
Some days on the bike you have one of “those” days and by “those”, I mean not good. On paper this looked like it would be a great ride. I love riding along the coast especially in a group (where you can take turns blocking the wind) and about 22 miles of this ride was along the coast. Also, there wasn’t going to be a whole bunch of climbing, only about 2700 feet. Finally, it was going to be warm but I thought we would be done with the ride before it got really hot.
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| One of approximately 30 flat tires |
I was riding with Group 2 today and at about 5 miles into the ride we pass Group 1 who is along the side of the road fixing a flat. I hoped that a flat this soon into the ride wasn’t going to be a bad omen. So much for hoping … it was a bad omen. We soon had our first flat in Group 2, and I stopped to help. Usually one of the ride leads immediately fixes the tire, so all I do is watch and maybe donate a CO2 cartridge. I usually stop even if I don’t get to do anything because I think it helps to have at least three or four people working together to catch the rest of the group after the flat is fixed. The flat was fixed in less than 5 minutes and we started working to catch the rest of the group. However, we soon came across another three or four people fixing a flat. Our original group stopped and waited and then about 8 of us started out again. We then came across another group fixing a flat. Same thing as before, stop, wait, and start again. By the time we got to the fist SAG at 25 miles, there had been 5 flat tires in Group 2. The only good part of this story is that Group 1 caught us not too far before the 76 bike path, so they pulled all of us (more than 20) along at some pretty nice speeds, averaging about 24 or 25 mph for about 10 miles.
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| Good place to get a flat, what a view! |
At the fist SAG, there were several people putting additional air in their tires with a bicycle floor pump. But the pump wasn’t making a tight seal on the valve. More air was coming out of the tire than what was going in. Not good! So I donated my 2nd cartridge of the day to a woman and got her tired filled up just prior to Group 2 rolling out. Jesse Mindlin, a fellow contestant who unfortunately was eliminated two weeks ago, and who had started out with Group 1, was in the same situation. The pump had let out more air from his tire than it had put in, and he was trying to get a cartridge to fill up his tire. I decided to wait for him rather than roll out with the rest of the group. I’ve been left once by myself at a SAG and it’s no fun riding by yourself when it was supposed to be a group ride! We then worked together for the next 15 miles trying to catch the group. We never did catch them until a water stop at mile 39, but it was sure fun riding with Jesse. He also thought it would be fun to see if we could my heart rate monitor to a new high while climbing up Circle R. We did; the monitor (which of course means my heart rate!) hit 170 which is just 2 bpm below my theoretical max of 172 (220 – age, but of course that is just a rule of thumb. I have no idea what my max heart rate actually is). Thanks Jesse for keeping me motivated while climbing that hill!
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| Coach Pat |
Later in the ride, I did something you should never do, which is follow too closely while on a high speed descent. I’m usually pretty conscious about following too closely and didn’t even realize I was doing it on this ride. Coach Pat though let me know about my error though since it was his wheel I was following too closely!
The worst part of the ride though was about an hour or so later. I thought I was going to go take a nasty spill and probably take a bunch of people with me. I was about 5 or 6 people back from the front while we were descending a pretty long, steep hill. I assumed that the route had us going to the bottom of the hill and then continue along the road we were on. Our speed was about 35 to 40 mph and I was actually starting to pick up some more speed. The riders in front weren't slowing or making any hand signals when I hear a call from the back that we are supposed to turn. The bad part is that I’m only about 100 yards from the intersection! Oh..Oh. Everyone in front of me then starts to slow rapidly and I have no idea if people behind me are slowing. So I jammed on the breaks as hard as I could and try to hold my line/position without hitting anyone in front of me. I can’t do anything about the people coming up behind me. My back tire starts to slide but I’m still closing quickly on the riders in front of me, and I hear lots of squealing brakes. Definitely not good! Somehow I manage to keep the bike upright while fish tailing, not hit anyone in front of me, and no one hit me from behind! Probably one of the scariest moments I’ve had on a bike. Fortunately, I wasn’t following anyone too closely (earlier lesson in the day!) and was able to keep the bike mostly under control. The morale of the story, don’t assume the riders in front actually know where they are going and know exactly where you need to turn before you start a high speed big descent. In the future, I will definitely be paying closer attention to the distance to the next turn.
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| It doesn't get better than this. Riding along the ocean with a breeze at your back! |
The post ride was the best part of the day. I stayed around until all of the Group 3 riders got back and met more people who I had never talked with before. It was really great to hear the various ways people are raising money for the CAF. And special thanks to Francesca who brought the left-over’s from her party the night before! She had chips, some great burritos with some fabulou ssalza, and a keg of Bud Lite. How great is that!
We also got word the Group 4 had a bunch of flats also and it would be awhile before they were finished. They are extremely dedicated group of cyclists! All together, the 4 groups had over 30 flats! But the worst day on a bicycle is still better than doing just about anything else!
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| Post ride food and beer! Thanks Francesca |
After getting home, my son and I went and passed out more Rubio’s flyers for the fund raising event. Over the two days, we handed out over 600 flyers. Dave Mitchell also passed out another 100. Unfortunately, when we went to eat at Rubio’s, we were only the 2nd person to use a flyer and Dave was the first! Hopefully we did better at some of the other stores.
Our fund raiser for this weekend is at Pat and Oscars. Please use
this flyer and support the CAF by eating there this Sunday.
