FLCC> Tuesday night -- another awesome outing!

[Donal Fitterer]

The parking lot was full last night with many new and seasoned riders
eager to get on the road. Daniel K took on the leadership role in
Glenn's absence. We had a quick set of announcements and I stated that
my group was heading to B-dale for some yellow diamond sprints and I
wanted the same group that I had last week. Daniel seconded my emotion.

As Sara was begging for Hollenbeck  volunteers I noticed that my front
brake cable was slipping. I asked Aqua Man (aka Nick R) for an allen key
and instantly busted the binder bolt! No front brakes for me!

I moved off to the side with my arm in the air to gather my group and
was immediately surrounded by a bunch of guy racer types in full kits
asking where I was going again and what I was planning. Stan "the Man"
and Jim "Lips" Metzger came to my rescue and took off with the
testosterone fueled group towards our flat race venue.

 

Ruth, Christine, Beth, Aileen, Daniel and I clustered up and waited for
riders ahead of us to exit the lot. A young man named Dominique was a
new enough newbie to gain access to our exclusive club. We headed out
Pine Tree and I had to soft pedal to keep from catching Stan and Jim's
group. Once on Rt 79   we started a double pace line. Again, we had to
slow down because the other group was dawdling. This was probably caused
by the fact that Stan hasn't been on his bike for 2 years.

 

We stopped near the sand pits just before our normal starting place and
reviewed what we had learned last week. We then discussed the art of
sprinting (in which I readily admit I am not very successful). I leave a
summary of the lesson plan to Christine as homework. Hopefully, she will
present what she heard to the list which should be fodder for
interesting discussions.

 

Our plan was to have a group of 3 or 4 riders (with Dan in one group and
me in another) pace line in front of the sprinter group. When a yellow
diamond was spied either I or Daniel would lead out the sprinters who
would then decide when they wanted to come around the lead out man. This
worked fairly well in the beginning. I had Aileen, Christine and Beth in
my group. Christine was top dog at the beginning. Aileen and Chris had
one awesome sprint trading the lead 3 time before Christine took the win
by inches. Beth was uncatchable once we hit the flats on Coddington.
Cracker Jacks Rueckheim joined us just as we got up to Coddington.

 

Daniel will have to fill in what went on with his group. I do know that
Ruth spanked Mr Jack when they faced off one on one. 

 

Before we went on to Coddington we stopped and discussed how to take the
corner. The short answer is not to race the corner and allow the group
to come around safely before sprinting off. Again, it would be great if
one of the listeners shared what they heard. 

 

Everyone was pretty toasted by the end of the ride especially since I
had them climb up the 11% grade on Burns Rd.

 

A good time once again!

 

Cheers,

 

Don

 

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