So the other day I was telling my wife about a frustrating ride in which someone our group tried to pass on the trail decided to tag on to our group and make our lives miserable. Her response was, “Sounds like a blog to me.” So here it is gang, if you want to piss people off then here is your instructional guide on “How Not To Draft”:
· Be a leech. Tag on to a group you don’t know without having a clue how to ride and draft in a group. As mentioned above, we were happily riding along when we tried to pass “Mr. Leech”. As we passed him he jumped onto our paceline. He would never take a turn pulling but at times, from the very back of the line, sprint forward past the entire paceline only to slow down and go at a slower pace once he was ahead of us. This forced us to pass him again only to have him repeat the pattern. All of us were getting frustrated and our torment only ended when he went in another direction. Later, we all decided that if confronted with a similar situation we would do a more disciplined paceline of 30 to 60 second pulls at a higher output so that the offender would fall off the back.
· Be a hummingbird. Flitting forward and back at inconsistent speeds that doesn’t match the rate of the paceline. Make everyone wonder if they should pass you or just end everyone’s misery and throw few tacks at your front wheel.
· Be a “Johnny Come Lately”. Suck away at everyone else’s energy like some lycra-clad vampire wanna-be, never taking a turn pulling the rest of the group. Then, as you near the finish, sprint forward using the reserves you sucked away from everyone else for your self-gratifying “strong finish”.
· Be a sidewinder. Instead of keeping a nice straight line, weave side-to-side so we don’t know what the frick you’re doing and we all live in fear of you clipping our wheel or other some such nonsense. High energy output doesn’t have to equal frenetic freak-out. Chill out, calm down and hum a mantra or two.
(Please note that this instructional, while tongue-in-cheek, is meant for group rides and not for actual race-day where team strategies may actually play into one of the categories.)
Riding alone I have been passed by a small group of "casual" riders. If I feel I can keep the pace I will ask if it is okay for an old man to draft off the back. They can say yes or no. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteI would never attempt to draft or keep pace with a group as fast as yours. At least not yet.
Yikes! Sorry to hear that. Frustrating. Mr. Leech in nothing like the guy I talked to who hitched a ride to work on The Body Concepts Train. He was great and it worked out becuase the early morning ride downtown was a steady state warm-up and this guy asked if he could just hang on the back for a ride into work. I told him that while Rob is part of the BC train, I am too slow so drafting off of me would not be beneficial. He said he loved riding behind BC. He liked that we had such a nice steady pace and were solid as a rock on the bikes: No drifting, yo-yoing or weaving. He said it made him a better rider. I asked Rob about it and he said, "Yeah, we have the regular communters that hop on. It's great they all ask how far we are going and at what pace and if they can tag along. They time their commute with our arrival. They always say 'Thanks for the lift.'"
ReplyDeleteI don't mind people that aren't as strong hanging on the back. My main problem is when they slow the whole group down by getting in front or waiting until a climb to sling shot ahead. Dude... I wasn't trying to set you up for a hill top finish!
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