Minuteman Road Club

For those not racing at Wompatuck on wednesday we will have the usual ride out of Stow.

To make sure we don't slack and get as good a work out as the others we will ride double paceline to 111 then rotating paceline to Oakhill, ride the hill however you want but 1st to the top circles back then rotating paceline round to West Bare (same as Oak) and rotate with a faster pace and chase down of any breakaways to the finish.

I think I'm in. Will pack the car and aim to get out of work in time to make this.

Can we hit Pinnacle Rd as well? Nothing like a little extra climbing to clear out the arteries.

I thought the rest of us were going to be able to climb Oak Hill first at our own pace so we could cheer the Smudger v. Turner grudge match/drag race Alpe D'Huez-style?

Pretty sure I'm in, I promise not to be late this time

---Chris

in

I may be a fair weather biker today

I'll be there.

I plan to be there today. WEather looks good for this afternoon..
paul

I am a jet lagged in.

Della , I know what you mean .. Gary S does not realize that he really pushes the pace !

So John...Bill...which one made it to the top of Oak Hill first??

OK. I delayed this post one day to see if I would be any less pissed off. I'm not.

There were de facto leaders on this group ride; people that know how a group ride should be run. Those leaders as well as the rest of the front group should be ashamed.

The first post in this thread, the one that describes a plan for the ride, says that the first riders to the top of Oak Hill will circle back to regroup. Just like we did at the top of Bare Hill the previous week.

I stayed with the front group most of the way up Oak Hill and then imploded (which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone). At this point I had about 7 of our original 14 riders behind me. Knowing that the plan was to circle back and regroup, I waited for the riders behind me. A few caught me and passed me but I was waiting for the back of the group because I don't know if everyone knows the loop. And of course the plan was to regroup anyway. I got to the top and no one was there. I rode to the bottom with a couple of guys and no one was there.

So much for the previously stated plan...
So much for basic group ride practice of not leaving people for dead...

I remembered Rich's post suggesting a Pinnacle Loop so we waited In Harvard center for a few minutes thinking the group would be back after riding Pinnacle. (Annoyed that I missed it because I like Pinnacle more than Oak Hill.) So after getting eaten by bugs we decided to do the Pinnacle loop backwards to meet up sooner. But obviously you guys didn't do the Pinnacle loop because we made it all the way to the top without seeing anyone.

I decided to short-cut over towards Harvard Rd going backwards on the loop, again figuring that we would see the group coming towards us after climbing Bare Hill and going down Green Rd. That's when we found another of our original 14 who had been left to fend for himself. He was completely lost. He had asked for directions and been sent in the wrong direction until we found him.

Guys - I have no problem with "no wait" rides. I have been on both ends of plenty of them over the years.
There's just one thing about yesterday's ride: IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE ONE!
There were people who didn't know the loop and they had been told that the ride would regroup after the climb.

What happened yesterday was completely inexcusable.
It's an absolute jackass move, the blame for which does not get spread out amongst the group. Everyone at the front owes a very serious apology to the people they left behind and they should be thankful that everyone found their way back safely. How would you feel if someone you left behind got flattened by a truck trying to find their way back to Stow and we all found out about it on the news the next day.

If I was new to the club (or considering joining the club) and this happened to me, I know I'd be a member of some OTHER club by the weekend.

Michael, I will shoulder some of the blame for the ride dynamics. My personal plan was to not hammer on any of the hills, and to stay towards the back. I did that to some degree on Oak hill, as a large group of 12 or so went up the road on me and Pattie (and some others behind us). However, at the top I did not remember the plan to circle back (usually we just ride very slowly instead of circling back) and kept riding at a medium pace so we'd get back on the main group. We did get back on just before Harvard center, where I should have had the group stop and wait, but I was pretty far back and we weren't riding hard, so I figured I'd go along for the ride and it would all come back together. After another couple of miles (just before the Fruitlands road), I didn't see anyone behind us, so I waited while the rest of the group carried on. After 2-3 minutes (I know what you mean about the bugs!) I figured you must have taken the shortcut so I took off. I always feel a sense of responsibility towards the guys/gals behind me (for a lot of reasons). On group rides I quite often will go back and try to help people who've fallen off the back. I should have been a better team player last night and made sure the ride worked for everyone.

I'll second Alan's comments.
I was able to stay with the front group in part because of your push to move me up and was expecting to wait a bit at the 4 way stop sign at Pinnacle. We rolled through and I didn't do a quick head count to check before the decent into Harvard Center. I should have held everyone at that point once it was clear that we had split.

My apologies to Michael, Joe, and anyone else who got caught back in the split. I'll be more vigilant next time.

Michael,

I will unreservedly apologize as I clearly stated we would get back together at the top of Oak and that didn't happen. I sat up to do just that however some others didn't and it appeared everyone was coming along close behind anyway. I won't blame anyone for riding on though because even though the message thread stated the plan I should have restated it at the start of the ride and at the bottom of the hill. The people who rode on weren't aware of the plan. By the time everyone was back together we were in Harvard Center and to be honest I thought everyone was on but didn't count. We did loop back at the top of West Bare but obviously the damage was done by then.

some observations from last nite:

observations from last nite: 1. Coley, I'm glad you waited 24 hrs. before venting. 2. we all got back in one piece. 3. Obviously, Michael's absolutely right about being more explicit pre-ride about waiting @ the top for everyone, especially new people who have no experience w a Stow hammerfest. 4. to all the new guys out there, be aware that 'training ride' means different things to different people and also the rides vary greatly depending on the time of the year, i.e. in race season or out of season. you should follow your own training schedule foremost and not worry about what others are doing. if pace is too hot or too limp, feel free to do your own thing. 5. personally, I'm OK with the parade passing me by last nite. when I do the Stow loop, I'm only interested in attacking up Oak Hill. looking for a good hard mid-week interval before my weekend race. I'll go big ring from the base and go as hard as I can for as long as I can until I blow up. occasionally I'll get to the top in front, more often , I'll explode and get passed by people on tricycles. but, I'm fine w that. last nite, I had great power numbers for the first 7 minutes of the 8 min climb, before I blew up spectacularly. and that's what I was looking for heading into the weekend. so, once again new guys, stick to your own schedules. It's nall about you. 6.and don't forget the old Chinese nugget: " always wait at the top for the man who has a cooler in the parking lot."

this little grasshopper has learned his lesson. i was looking forward to a post ride brew.

Old friend and club member Tom Ball has been writing me about the group rides down in NC...where Hincapie is the general. First 20 mins is explicit warmup. Then tempo pace except for specified "attack zones" when it is okay to shatter group if you can. Ride regroups at end of attack zones. Sprint finish. 15 min warmdown.

At times in the past this has been a smack down ride, but even then not until June when everyone is in shape. We went away from the smack down ride concept for a number of reasons The biggest issue was safety --smack down ride encouraged people to take undue chances on busy roads. Also (in the days of jack Brumm) we surmised it isn't the optimal kind of training. He noticed that some folks were putting in more effort on the Tour de Stow then they were on weekend races, quite possibly becuase they were tired or burned out. People racing on Saturday probably should not be tempted by a testosterone fest. And as Joe pointed out, the ride was meant to be a group ride to accomodate all training objectives.

One year jack had a great idea wheere we split the ride up into 3 or 4 roughly equal teams. We'd race up Oak HIll, Pinnacle Hill, etc, as well as some flatter attack zones. The TEAM would get points for placing 1-3 on each "race".. But the catch was that the same guy couldn't score twice. So, for example, if Neil won on Oak Hill, he couldn't also win Pinnacle -- instead he would have to work to set up a teammate to win it. Everyone's getting a good interval workout, but it is building team dynamcis.

We don't want rides like this to cause dissention. So lets talk about the program before each ride. And remember it is a TEAM/CLUB ride.

Alright boys, time to kiss and make up