Nicky Boulle joined us this week, a 2nd year student who rides with the Park Place team, and soon will be representing us at collegiate races. He did the Tuesday night crits the night before, and his first outing was 7th out of the 50 or so in his cat 5 race. He should cat-up pretty soon. Even though he made a lot of people hurt out on the course, it takes some time to learn that the hurt needs to be dosed out in a timely fashion. Soon he will be on the podium.
After last weeks torrential rains, today was the perfect day to ride. Chase, Nicky, Clyde, Jackie, Damiano, Don, Caryn, Greg, Rob and myself had a nice jaunt to White Rock, where we did up and backs on this day. After last year's alteration of the ride due to extensive work done to the paths at White Rock, I thought staying at the lake would be a good choice. The traffic was prohibitive to any nice tempo/sprint ups (that would be TP Hill to M-Bird) so it is hard to say who had the good legs with the desire to use them. I wish we could do the Sunnyvale ride on Wednesdays, but the traffic on US80/I30 for those few miles would be disconcerting to some of us.
Caryn had a flat commuting from her work, so she went home to get a replacement wheel only to find more issues there (missing valve stem, a forte tube that was too small for a 650 wheel, and met us at the lake. Rob and Caryn noticed some new bottom bracket issues (a weakness of FSA) but these problems were nothing like what happened just in front of Don.
On such a pretty day, there is an obvious desire to ride, but if your bike hasn't been looked at for the entire winter, please do a serious check on it to make sure nothing has loosened up. A women and two friends just got on to Lawther from TP Hill and within the first minutes, she noticed that her steering bolts were loose. She then tries to repair by shaking her front wheel (while she was still riding!) She does an ugly face planting endo.
A large group stop to check on her, and a RBM guy ask if any of us know first aid. Hmm, what to do. She is conscious and laying down but complaining that "her neck and spine hurts" Chase said that he is a lifeguard, knows CPR, but what we needed was an ambulance and a neck brace. Nicky was on the phone to the authorities, but was asked not to call. Her friend kept telling us "No ambulance" and then tries to lift her so she can stand up. We all thought that is a bad idea. She lays back down. Her friend went to get their car, and another friend was saying, "if you didn't want to ride, you should have said so" Hopefully they went to see a doctor. She might have needed a stitch in her lip also. Her bike has a buckled top tube and down tube so I left them with a "look for a replacement frame on e-bay"
Our group made it back in two groups as there was a sprint to see who was in front of us wearing the SMU jersey. The rest just rode in at our leisure.
Our ride captain, Michael Vangeli should be back next week, and we can discuss the shape of future rides.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think the traffic was a real hindrance, both at the sprint area and on the course in general. On the return of the second lap, a car speeded past me only to take a right turn directly in front of me onto a side street. I had to perform a full two wheel lock up to avoid running into her. I missed eating the side of her dumb minivan by no more than an inch or so. That pissed me of royally.
I was a bit surprised to see I still had the reflexes to brake hard, shift weight to the rear, control the skid while drifting sideways, and then correct course and flip the bird, all without biting it. I would have also tossed a bottle at her if it weren't one of my new ones.
Not bad for a duffer.
Other than that incident I found the ride quite enjoyable, and felt nice and comfy in the group.
I would like to see more new folks at the ride, so let's get the word out!
Post a Comment