I
finally got a chance to get in a decent ride this past weekend!
The
Capital to Capital Multi-use trail (Cap2Cap for short) has been a project
dreamed up by Richmond cyclists about 10 years ago. Running from downtown iRichmond VA to Yorktown VA, It’s going to become a
reality later this year, just in time for the UCI World Cycling Championships.
Every year for the last 10, there has been a fundraising ride held to sponsor
the trail’s construction. My Bride and I have ridden it for the past 2 years,
together, and weren’t planning to ride it this year as we had another event
scheduled on top of it. That event was delayed and it left me the chance to go
ride it, again. MB didn’t come with me as she had a friend’s memorial service
to manage. (I had her permission to go, so don’t start on me.)
We
interrupt this ride report to bring you the following Tour de Cure update:
As
regular readers of this blog know, I’m riding in the Northern VA Tour de Cure
on June 7th. I’m still working towards my goal to raise $2,000 for
this year’s event; doing so would mean that all your help over the past 4 years
has allowed me to raise $7800! If you haven’t contributed yet, time is getting
short! I have less than 4 weeks and I’m woefully shy of my goal currently
sitting at only $877! (Not only that, the entire ride is way short of their
goal, too. We really need your help!)
Please,
take a few minutes and click the link below. Even a donation of $5 would help.
Actually, if everyone who reads this blog gave $5, I’d have hit the goal
already. I’d be much obliged!
Back
to the Cap2Cap
I
signed up to ride the Sands Andersen (sponsor plug) 50 mile event, a loop that
began at the trailhead in Rockett’s Landing and followed mostly lightly driven
roads on the east side of the city of Richmond. The course appeared to be the
same one from the prior year and I was very glad to see that as I remembered it
being nearly flat and the roads all well-marked and in good shape.
When
I got to Rockett’s Landing, I was amazed at how much construction had
taken
place in the area. It’s now a community with row houses and apartments, very
nicely appointed buildings with views of the James River. (I’m guessing the
prices are nicely appointed, as well.)
 |
| Nice urbanish look, no? |
Because
of all the growth, parking was at a premium. I ended up on a street about a
half mile from the starting area. After off-loading my bike, I filled my
pockets with some snacks, loaded in my water bottles, turned on my Garmin and
rolled slowly over to the starting area with about 10 minutes to spare.
Big
Turnouts make for Sketchy Starts
I
slowly crept through the crowd until I was about 1/3 of the way back from the
starting group. My experience in these mass starts, with a bunch of people who
aren’t all that devoted to riding, is to look for safe harbor. Invariably,
someone goes down in a heap and takes a few others with them due to shaky bike
handling skills; I didn’t want to wind up that guy, sprawled across the
pavement trying to get out of my pedals while people try desperately not to run
me down. (Don’t ask me how I know what this looks like.) And with what appeared
to be a crowd of around 800 riders, the likelihood was very strong for an
incident.
I
stopped near the curb and almost immediately, three women rolled up and stopped
next to me, chatting happily together. Two of them had on jerseys from Luna,
the energy bar people. Both had really nice road bikes and looked very fit.
 |
| Not my actual riding buddies but I could be wrong. |
After
eavesdropping for a few minutes, I gathered they were part of the LunaChicks
cycling team, a group sponsored by the energy bar. (This group is a MTB team,
as the one woman later told me; if MTB does that much for one’s road cycling
skills, I may have to see about getting a MTB.) At some point, the three were
trying to take a selfie showing the start of the ride. I volunteered to get
them all in the shot and took it for them. I also took a couple of my own, just
to prove I was there.
 |
| Why do people take these? |
And
we’re off!
The
PA system blared with some guy with a very excited voice counting us down to
the start and we slowly rolled out. I say slowly because I didn’t get above
walking speed for about 2 blocks. Once we got out to a larger street, things
started to thin out and we could pedal up to a reasonable speed. My intention
was to make my 15 mph over the course and finish in 3:45 or so with a
couple of stops to refill bottles and pee. (This isn’t a race, it’s a ride, so
stopping for a quick snack, drink, whatever is the right way to do it.
Especially when you haven’t ridden that many miles for the year.)
About
five miles up the road, the LunaChicks came slowly past me, riding a nice tight
paceline except now there were four of them. I eased in behind the last one in
line and held my line right behind her. They were riding about 17 mph and
appeared to be just cruising along with little strain. After a few minutes, I
apologized for crashing their group but I felt like I had the right to do so
since I’d been the one that took their picture at the start. They laughed and
invited me to stay. I told them I’d be glad to let them take the wind for the
old guy but would also be glad to do my share of the work.
Their
names turned out to be Sue, Stephanie (sisters), Renee, and Sarah. They were
all younger than me (and in far better shape) and were just very pleasant
people to be riding with.
There’s
something about a paceline that is fine, fine, fine!
If
you’ve ever watched cycling on TV (and I realize that’s pretty unlikely; the
Tour de France is about the only one you’ll see unless you’re a crazed cycling
fan and subscribe to some obtuse channel that shows this sport) you’ve probably
heard an announcer say, at some point,
“By
riding close together, the riders are able to share energy. The person riding
in the slip stream can save as much as 30% of their energy to maintain the same
speed.”
I
know the first time I heard that statistic I thought it had to be BS; there
couldn’t
possibly be that much of an advantage. Then, I rode in my first
paceline. Holy Cow! The difference is truly amazing. I remember being surprised
that it was ONLY 30% as it seemed I didn’t have to pedal very much at all. I
don’t know why more of us amateurs / MAMILs* / OMILs* don’t learn to do it more
often. (see footnotes below)
 |
| This is how it's done! |
In
any case, we rode a tight paceline for nearly the rest of the ride. We stopped
at the first and third “feed zones” for a quick stretch and bottle refill. We
occasionally splintered on descents and on one climb, but we would always
regroup and start up, again.
Sue
seemed to be the ringleader of the group. She led the line at least half the
time and her pace was steady as a clock. If someone would drop off, she’d be
the one to fall back and pace them back up. When Renee dropped a chain during
the one difficult climb on the ride, Sue went back to make sure she was okay
and got back with us.
(I
really felt badly about that. I had been right behind Renee when her chain
slipped off and she pulled over to put it back on. I don’t recall if I offered
to help or just kept going because my tongue was hanging out just trying to
make it up the hill. Chivalry from me died on that hill, I’m ashamed to say.
Sorry ladies! I’ve just gotten too old to pretend that I’m not, anymore. Just
the same, I should have stopped.)
Stephanie
seemed equally determined to be at the front and she would pedal past Sue and
take the lead for the other half of the time. She also had a strong pace for me
to follow.
Renee
was a friend of a friend of the sisters and they were watching out for her; the
friend that she was supposed to be riding with had suffered an injury the week
before and couldn’t ride. I’m not sure she knew what she was getting herself
into but she wasn’t going to be denied a good ride with the LunaChicks! She
pounded out a strong pace, too.
Sarah,
like me, was an unexpected addition to the paceline apparently having just joined it not
long before they passed me. She is in training for a Half-Ironman Triathlon (that’s
a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a half-marathon, people) with only 30 days to prepare
for it. As a result, she was very focused on a solid pace, too. At the same
time, she has a laugh that is hearty and frequent so, she doesn’t appear to
have that killer instinct on a bike; not until she’s pedaling away from you,
going up a hill.
It
was a great day!
The
weather turned out to be perfect with a high at 80 degrees, no wind to speak
of, and cloud cover for about half the ride.
The
course was very well marked, the roads were in fairly good shape considering
the winter we had, and the feed zones were staffed by very friendly volunteers.
When
we rolled back into Rockett’s Landing, we had averaged a little over 15 mph
including stops. (I had our moving speed just over 16.5; considering we crept
along for the first half mile, that was a pretty good pace.)
We
dropped our bikes at the bike valet, and went to collect our lunch and beer,
included in the ride. I was thrilled to see Hardywood
After
cooling off, chatting about the ride, and taking after ride pictures – we headed
off on our separate ways. I’m not sure I’ll ever ride with them again, but Sue,
Stephanie, Renee, and Sarah – Count me in for a paceline any time!
I
felt like I could have ridden another 20 miles easy, having had the wind taken
off my face for most of the day.
The
next morning, however, my legs told things differently…..
*MAMIL
– Middle aged man in Lycra
*OMIL
– Old man in Lycra
