On Being Dropped and Riding Alone

Before I forget, yesterday I rode 131km, today 163km (100 miles is 161km, so I have done a century! - for the first time in two whole weeks, recall on the trip to Rochester I ended up riding 285km in a day, and that was July 3.)

Anyway a few statistics and then some highlights from today's ride with the BCC.

As noted, I covered just over 163km, I did it at an average of just over 30km/h, burned off almost 7000 calories and I ended up stopping three times. The first stop, a Tim Hortons so some of the women who came out needed to use the washroom - I cleaned my glasses with a napkin. The next stop, at the bakery in Goodwood, I refilled my bottles with tap (probably artesian well) water, finally I stopped alone, at my office for some water cooler water on the way home.

On the way out the guys were feeling well frisky I guess, they were going fast, too fast to last the 140 or so kilometers so I came up to the front and told them to slow down and actually got a few thank yous for that which was really nice. Ultimately I ended up pulling for a while which is alright with me, I like to pull.

As we got near major turns I would try to jump way ahead of the pelaton, okay it would have looked like I was making a break away, but in fact I was simply making sure to make the turn way before everyone else so they would see me turn and join in. There was one problem, on the way from Oshawa to Goodwood there were quite a few rollers and well, I could stand to loose a few pounds. I get clobbered on hills. I would try, at the base to pickup some speed and jump ahead of everyone else, they of course, would, by in large, pass me, but at least I'd still be somewhere in the pelaton at the top of the hill. At least that is my thinking, the problem in a bike club is, one guy starts hammering and before you can say dropfeast, everyone is going full hells bells out. I tried to stay on, I really did, and exploded, a-la Fabian Cancellara on the Cor du Tourmalet, but unlike Fabian who was doing a domestique's job of pulling Andy Schleck, I was just trying to lug my own rear end up the hills and stay with the guys.

I got dropped.

Hey it could have been worse, unlike everyone who dropped me, I knew the route to the bakery and then home. I think I should insert advice for anyone going on a long ride in the country side, turn by turn directions on bars is nice, but when you are trusting that you will see the road signs and that your directions are actually... accurate - you are most likely to find yourself in some serious trouble. If someone is going to go for a ride, either bring a GPS, like mine, one that will tell you, you are off course, or perhaps drive the route before hand. But if you do not have an instinct for distance, make sure you ride with someone like me, someone who studies maps for hobby and knows almost all the major roads from Peterbrough to Hamilton, from Barry to Lake Ontario.

The guys went off course, I tried to yell at them, first that they dropped me, and a bunch of other people it turned out. Later I tried to yell that they were not turning where they were supposed to. I could have tried to snap the distance, but when a guy gets dropped there really is not much incentive to race back up to those who dropped him to say, hey guys, you are riding on a really crummy road that is high traffic and will not even get you where you want to go. In any case, I'm not sure I could have snapped the gap, it was too big and I was still recovering from my explosion.

Actually in a way the guys who dropped me were lucky, sort of, the route they took was much shorter, by about 9.5km, over what by the time they dropped me was only about 30km for me. On the other hand, they rode on some of the lousiest roads, for cyclists, north east of Toronto. Roads with very heavy auto traffic volume and very fast auto traffic volume, personally I get my fill riding home from work in rush hour so I took quiet scenic roads with more rollers and five other guys, we talked, we rode, we climbed a pretty tough hill into the wind, it was nice.

We caught up with the fast guys at the bakery in Goodwood where we discussed the journey home. I had been warned that there was construction on one of the key roads, then someone else chimed in that there were cement barriers on another key road. Alarm bells were ringing, a detour around the barriers was dreamed up, someone else suggested that the construction ought to be done by now and we should just brave it. Well we got to the first road, where the construction was and the word gravel comes to mind, so does the expression exposed road bed. Now don't get me wrong, I've rollerbladed in 100mm wheels over gravel and exposed road beds, but that doesn't mean I like it. I had a chance to bail and did just that.

As soon as I dodged the first patch of construction I pondered my revised route, and observed I was riding alone. Well at least when I ride alone it is difficult to get dropped, and its not like I have not rode alone before. I dreamed up a route that involved a little bit of Scarborough, I do not like riding in Scarborough, but if I had stuck with the guys, there would have been even more Scarborough. (Scarborough drivers... sigh.) So maybe this riding alone was not such a bad move? Then I thought, I'm sick of this Perpetuem in my water, I just want some plain water that does not taste like chalk. It occurred to me that I could just ride on to the office, if I took a route a little further west the office would be on the way home and I would get to avoid Scarborough completely.

I wondered for about five whole seconds if everyone who was with me would mind using Leslie street to get home, then I remembered, short of a sudden case of split personality disorder it was just me and my ride. In a way riding home alone was a good thing, the fact that I had a huge tail wind for the journey home helped and in general riding alone sucks, but this one time, I think fate handed me a big huge favour by making me elect to hack it on my own.

As I neared home I saw the GPS was at 158km, I dreamed up a quick detour, just to make sure to cross the 100 mile mark. I was hunting down a couple rabbits on the bike trail when I hit 161km. (I caught the rabbits too, about 161.5km). For anyone not enlightened by a bike yet, a rabbit is a term for another cyclist one is attempting to chase down.

Although speaking of rabbits, there was a guy, on Leslie, just north of my office, in a full Cervelo Test Team kit and with a Cervelo bike who caught up and passed me, but passed me so slowly that I was able to hop onto his wheel. Then he started dying on the hill, so I got in front, he moved off to the right and would not take my draft. When I yelled to him to take my wheel he did not even look at me. At a red light he zoomed up the right hand side of the lane and I stopped behind the last car, so he had a good 20 second lead on me as soon as the light changed, but rather than try to catch him I slowed down to make the turn to my office, people with attitude like that... I do not know what to say to them, but he really was not that impressive. Especially since I was snapping the gap even though I was actually trying to get away from him by riding slowly.