Well, this started out with such fun expectations. A Halloween group ride Saturday, a B/C ride, at a social pace, no drop. Costumes encouraged but not required. I decided to flip it around, wear comfortable clothes, but to add something special for the Bike.
And here it is, in a photo taken on Friday.
That was the highlight, that photo, Friday.
Saturday, I'd rather forget.
Warning, ranting ahead.
It rained a lot overnight. Was still drizzing at ride time. I decided not to mount the ACME rocket to the bike ,as it would have gotten ruined by dirty water. But that was not the low moment of the day.
The group rode out, I think maybe 40 people. It was great for the first mile or two. Then there was a bridge across a highway to ride over, so as I rode slow up it, one by one a lot of riders passed me. Oh well, there's a sweeper in the back and it IS a no drop ride. The group got farther and farther ahead (Social pace…. yeah, right), riding 1/2 to 1 mph faster than I could reasonably try to keep up with, without killing my legs for the rest of the ride (I learned not to overstress myself trying to keep up, leaivng my legs too weak to ride at a decent speed later). Eventually, no sign of them. No sign of a sweeper, either.
They had handed out a map shorty before the ride. I knew there would be a turn off to the right at some point. I stopped to check the map. A bit later, another rider from the ride stopped behind me. Ah, the sweeper! So, we rode onwards. Came upon a turn to the right that I thought might be the one to use. I asked the sweeper if we turn right here. Nothing. I ask again, nothing. So, we ride on, he must know where we are going. I asked him twice more if he knew where we were going….
But finally I realized the mileage to that right turn, we had ridden past that distance. I stop again. I asked the sweeper where to we go, was that turn we rode past where we were supposed to turn? it turned out he was a straggler, NOT a sweeper. We had both gotten left, on this "Social Pace No Drop Ride".
Of course, all the time spent stopping to check a map, which was printed TOO SMALL to make out a lot of the text (magnifying glasses not part of my ride tools), meant we were being left further and further behind. We wasted at least 10 minutes trying to find the first rest stop (which was off-trail), before giving up on that since we figured by then nobody would be there. So onwards, finally back on course for sure. We ride past where the 2nd rest stop was….. nobody. The other guy rode ahead of me and kept pulling away, and I was not sure he knew where he was going, because according to the map we should have turned left onto a different trail already. So, OK, he left me, I gave up on him, and FINALLY had a real rest stop, to have a cereal bar, and get my GPS nav going.
Another mistake I made was to try to get to the 3rd and final stop, which would have been a longer stop for the group since it was at a bike shop and the costumes would be judged there. I wasted too much time trying to get there, and the NavMii GPS was not giving me reliable info, some routes it attempted to send me on ridiculously long, a three lefts make a right kind of thing. So, ultimately I used Cyclemeter's map, and to just get back to my car, period. Screw trying to get to that 3rd stop. Now, Cyclemeter is not meant for navigation like a TomTom or Garmin auto GPS. The maps there are for planned routes, and for recording GPS points as record of the ride. Fortunately the night before I had made a "dummy" route of the general area for the sake of making sure that the map data was pre-fetched before leaving home (since the iPhone is not activated, getting internet only using only WiFi). Anyway, I did see where the starting point was programmed to be, and used the rest of the map display to help me get to it.
When I got there…. everybody was back and eating lunch inside the park building. Nobody said anything, nobody even nodded or acknowledged I existed, though of course most were just doing their thing eating lunch. But I'd been in the same room as them for nearly an hour before we left. I assume they didn't know I'd been dropped, I wasn't going to make a scene. At the tables, all the chairs were used, no place to sit and have lunch with anyone (ah, the camaraderie thing again!). I put a bit of lunch into a paper plate, got something to drink, and left. I ate lunch in my car, and drove elsewhere to try to get some good use out of the rest of the day while I was in that side of town.
It REALLY ticked me off to have been left like that. This was supposed to be a no-drop ride, with a sweeper. Somebody blew it. I do not even know who to complain to, but I'm going to find out.
There is NO POINT in doing a GROUP RIDE WITHOUT THE GROUP!!! I did this ride for the sake of doing a big special group ride. Not to do a long mostly solo ride that I was NOT prepared to do solo, as opposed to how I plan out all my complex solo rides in advance or know the area well enough to be able to dead-reckon back. Given the rain and uncertainty of when we'd leave to start the ride, by the time I installed and turned on my iPhone on the bike to get Cyclemeter running, I forgot to open "iArrow" to log the "you are here" GPS location of the starting point.
Also, of course, the entire route of that ride, none of which I'd ever ridden before, if I had wanted to experience those trail segments solo, then I'd not have done it on a cold RAINY day. I'd have done it on a nice day when I could have been well prepared with the route in advance, and ridden at my own pace, and enjoy it (even stop to enjoy some places) rather than the stress of trying (and failing) to keep up with a group that rode out of sight.
So, when I arrived for the ride this morning, I thought I was not wearing a costume. But, as it turned out, I was wearing the costume of a "soon-to-be DROPPED RIDER". Or, the Invisible Man (despite my flashing CatEye headlight).
And how silly it would have been if I had worn a costume, to have ended up alone looking that way? Also a good thing I didn't have the ACME rocket onboard for a similar reason. Also though if I had it on, I could have blamed that rocket for slowing me, and whoever is responsible for me being left could have tried to blame that as to why I could not keep up with the "social pace". Though of course it was't just me that got left, there was also that other guy, and our bikes were unimpeded.
This was the worst ride experience I've had, other than when I fell onto grass while stopping (but that fall was during an otherwise positive ride on a new trail that I'd set a personal best distance at, busting 20 miles for the first time). The bad weather would not have mattered much if it had all been with the group. Indeed, I had come pretty close to deciding NOT to do the ride after all due to the weather. But there was this special group ride, the "camaraderie" of doing that……. which suckered me into riding in weather I would NEVER choose to ride in otherwise.
So all I have left to show for it are some pre-ride pics of other people in costume, which I'm going delete (too painful), a VERY DIRTY bike, and extreme disillusionment..
At least I can get the bike cleaned up.
And I did make it back safely. But I was in more danger riding alone, some of it on streets trying to get back, than I would have been with the group. And I was glad to have my lighting system operating, it was a very drab dark overcast, the very kind of day that I had designed the lighting to stand out in, plus the turn signals.
Hope EVERYBODY had a better day than I did.
- George Gassaway
