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The Dangers of Cycling

03.26.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

“While I was lamenting my problems with my sore ribcage, something a lot more serious happened to a good friend of mine. It was last Saturday morning, on one of our club rides.

A group had gone out to Kyle, about 23 miles south of town, and made their usual turnaround stop at a gas station/convenience store. The road through Kyle was repaved about a year ago, and is quite smooth, with a generous shoulder. The Line was moving at about 20 mph, according to one of the riders. It had started to rain. The road was slick. The day was chilly. Because of the wind, the group formed a sort of paceline.

Just before reaching a stoplighted intersection, the lead rider saw two obstacles in his path. One was a car bumper, the other something unspecified. The rider pointed out the car bumper on the right, but did not point out the object on the left. He led the way between the two, expecting those behind him to follow in his tire tracks.

Apparently, the rider behind him braked. The third rider in line swerved. The front tire of the fourth rider, Jerry, touched the rear tire of the third bike. Jerry went down in a heap, and the next four riders went down in a pile.

Jerry suffered a broken femur. A passer-by who turned out to be a nurse treated him for shock until paramedics arrived, and he was taken to an emergency room in Austin. On Sunday, he underwent surgery to repair the break, and is getting close to leaving the hospital as this is posted.

The experience triggered a flurry of posts on the club’s Yahoo group. Debra, whom I ride with on B rides out in the country, had some simple, straightforward advice: “Don’t ride in pacelines.”

The second rider in the line posted that no single thing caused the crash, but suggested some lessons to be learned from the mishap:

  1. Avoid riding in the rain if at all possible (not an option in this case)
  2. Provide more buffer space from other riders (in front and laterally)
  3. Ride slower – not a race – especially in inclement weather
  4. Yell out any road debris and signal behind you

To which, the club president reminded everyone that our club rides are not races, although they might assume an “aggressive” pace from time to time.

Others cited communication as being the most important factor. The lead rider called out the road debris, but did not signal. The second rider signaled, but did not call out. Another member pointed out that calls don’t travel very far anyway.

One of our more experienced members advised that the rider in front should stay focused on the road and try to lead the group around the hazard, rather than point it out and miss it by an inch or two.

Still another said the leader shouldn’t be too diligent at pointing out trouble. “Pointing out every gum wrapper will make your little ducklings less likely to notice the massive boulder they’re about to endo over,” he wrote.

The club president noted that there are only a few group riding configurations. Since it’s inevitable that we will line up behind each other at some point in a group ride, it’s important to be able to handle those situations.

He’s going to arrange for a cycling coach to conduct some paceline drills for the club.

I’ve written before of my aversion to pacelines. But if the paceline drills happen, I’ll probably sign up.

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Categories // crash, Technique Tags // crash, paceline

Still Not Comfortable In a Paceline

12.18.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

pacelineMy friend B.J. commented on the last post that he thinks a paceline is just an accident waiting to happen. Over the past five years, since I started what I call “serious biking,” I’ve ridden in lots of them. Other times, I’ve simply glommed onto someone’s wheel for a pull. But I’ve got something in common with B.J.–after all these years of riding, I’m still not comfortable while drafting.

Most of the time, I find myself in a sort of paceline on our Sunday morning club rides. That’s because of the sheer number of riders out there. We’ll get anywhere from 15-30, and when we leave in a group, it’s quite a peloton. It’s not the classic double paceline, where the leaders pull off in different directions and then fall back to the rear. We’re a lot more disorganized than that.

The great thing about riding in a group like that is the drafting effect. You find yourself moving along at a good clip, but with very little effort. The peloton pulls you along.

However, I find this kind of riding to be both exhilarating and tiring at the same time. I’m grateful for the added speed, but I expend so much mental effort in the process that I’m worn out afterward.

I’m still not fast enough to hang with the paceline that occasionally forms on our “A” rides. I clearly remember one Sunday, when the “Bs” left early for some reason, but on our way back, met the “As” going in the opposite direction. They had one of the best-defined pacelines I’ve ever seen. They gobbled up the pavement. It was very impressive.

When I find myself drafting someone, or a group, my antennae go up immediately. I gauge my distance to the wheel in front, and work at maintaining a distance of no closer than a foot. I’m frankly more comfortable with about a three-foot gap to the guy in front of me. Then, I look past him to the rider ahead of him. If there are any complications, I figure that’s where they’ll happen. I suppose the thing that bugs me most about riding close is that I can’t see obstacles in the road ahead, and so am dependent upon other riders to point them out. Still, if I’m right on someone’s tail, I might have to react in an instant.

“Don’t draft unless you know the person you’re drafting, and are familiar with his riding style,” goes the advice about riding in pacelines. Good advice, I suppose. Problem is, I’m not familiar with anybody’s riding style — even club members I’ve been riding with for years. That’s because I might ride behind that person only once in a while. But how are you going to get better at it unless you practice? So that means you’re going to ride behind people you’re not familiar with — and hope for the best.

One of the cooler things to happen this past year was when the club headed south on its Sunday ride. We were on Old San Antonio Road — a two-lane blacktop with no shoulder. It’s a good cycling road that leads into the small town of Buda, and is very popular with all sorts of club rides. As usual, the A riders outdistanced me and the two other B riders who came along that day. We were on our own, until another club ride caught up to us. They were a little slower than our club A’s, but the momentum of their group pulled them past us. I hung on to the last rider in their group, who turned out to be their ride leader. He started offering impromptu coaching to me and one of the other B’s.

“Pull ahead of me, and get behind that guy,” he said, pointing to a rider several positions forward. I did, and that put me in the left row of the paceline. The leader hung back with my friend, who was having lots of trouble adjusting to the group. He patiently talked my friend into speeding up, finding a comfortable distance, and maintaining speed.

Meanwhile, I concentrated on keeping even with the rider next to me, while looking ahead for trouble. We flew into Buda, and at the corner Walgreens that marks the end of Old SA Road, they peeled off in a different direction than we were heading. I felt good — felt like I had really accomplished sticking with the paceline for a change.

But that, in my experience, is the exception. Most pacelines aren’t that organized, and the ones that are are too fast for me. I guess I’ll continue to look for opportunities to draft, but I know that most of the time, I’ll be feeling uneasy while I’m doing it.

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Categories // Technique Tags // paceline

The Joy of Drafting

11.10.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

I was doing an afterwork ride this week at the Veloway,  when a couple passed me by. He seemed to be a little older than she, and seemed to be the more experienced biker. He was leading, and she was glued to his rear wheel. Obviously they were practicing something. Perhaps he was pacing her. They went by me easily, and I thought they’d be out of sight soon. But they weren’t going as fast as I thought. I soon found myself caught back up to them. I decided to latch on.

It looked like she was practicing drafting. She did a good job of keeping her front wheel about a foot behind his rear wheel. I tried to get as close to her as she was to him, but I’ve always been leery of following too close. Gradually, I closed the gap.

On a closed course like Austin’s Veloway, it’s easy to keep a paceline together. You’re not worried about traffic, and the kinds of road debris you encounter on shoulders just doesn’t exist there. I noticed both of them were down in the drops, pedaling in their big rings. I usually tour the Veloway in my small ring at a high cadence. I shifted up to match their style, and got down in my drops, too.

We glided around the course. The benefits of riding closely like we were showed themselves. On a flat straight stretch, we were hitting 24 mph into the wind. (Admittedly not a very strong wind this evening.) The woman glanced over her shoulder and saw that I was there, but made no gesture.

If I do ride in the drops, I do it for a relatively short period of time. This evening we stayed in the drops for the entire lap. They swooped through the last few bends before the end of the lap, then started a new one. I hung in there.

After three laps like this, I had reached the end of my ride. I still had almost three miles to pedal to reach home, and it would soon be time to eat. The couple continued for yet another lap. I peeled off and went through the gate, through the parking lot, and out onto the street.

The speed we had reached was, of course, higher and more sustained than I could have done on my own. Several times, I found myself soft pedaling because they were pulling me along. Staying in the drops allowed me to apply more power to the pedals without much increase in effort. The experience left me exhilarated, and I felt like I could do a lot more.

It was also much different from group riding on the road. I’m not crazy about long pacelines in traffic. For one thing, you can’t see any obstacles ahead. Even if people signal, when you’re tailing them so close, it’s often hard to miss debris. More importantly, I never feel sure I know what the person in front of me is going to do. I find myself concentrating really hard to anticipate what will happen next, and to keep my wheel from touching his, that it drains my energy really fast.

Behind two folks on a close course, it was different. I felt part of a team (although I didn’t take a pull — either did the woman) and was very comfortable riding as close as I did. I resolved to try to duplicate the way we rode on future visits to the Veloway.

I also resolved to ask permission in the future before jumping into a paceline.

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Categories // training Tags // drafting, paceline

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