The Upstate Winter Bicycle League rolled out of downtown Greenville shortly after 10 AM.  When I checked the temp while making my coffee, I noticed the temperature was around 31 degrees.  When I got out of the truck upon arriving downtown, I saw it had risen to 38 degrees.  Maybe this would turn out to be a good day.

The numbers were down slightly from last week.  Still, there was well over 100 riders who showed up for the ride that would cover nearly 10 more miles than the first one.  The other change was this week we would do portions of last week’s ride in reverse.

Looking at my data from the two rides, I was surprised how close the information was.

Dec. 6: Time – 3:09 / Distance – 63 miles / Avg. Spd. – 20 mph / Avg. Watts – 200
Dec. 13: Time – 3:38 / Distance – 70.5 miles / Avg. Spd. – 19.5 mph / Avg. Watts – 193

The only really interesting thing for me was that I wore my helmet cam on my head.  Typically I carry it in my pocket and pull it out to take video.  However, today I hoped to get some video of a field sprint.  I don’t exactly enjoy riding in a tight group at 30+ mph holding my bars with one hand while filming with the other!

I got several comments.  “Do you do a lot of night riding?” one rider asked.  That was creative.  Mostly people just said, “Is that a camera on your head?”  Yes, there was a camera on my head.  Yes, I felt like a geek!

Still I think it was worth it.  I got some decent video of the final sprint (to appear online soon) and also got some advertisement for LowCadence.com.  Each time someone asked if I was wearing a camera, I had the opportunity to tell them about the site.  Thankfully, low cadence, is easy to remember.

Once as we neared a stop sign, I heard a couple of guys talking and I heard one say something like, “Yeah, and he has a site called lowcadence.com.”  I wasn’t sure to be pleased or embarrassed.  They way they were talking it almost sounded like they were making fun of me!

Oh, well, the camera also allowed me to talk with people I had never met before.  There was one really nice guy who races in Masters 45+ who came down from Asheville just for the UWBL.  I also got to meet guys I have seen on multiple rides and finally got a chance to say a few words.

We ended up with two sprints.  The first one was just before our first stop at a BP station.  I didn’t even try for that one.  I just sat in the back and let the guys go for it.  However, I was stuck with some yo-yo’ing on some of the climbs and worked my way around it and was near the finish as the main group pulled into the store.

Then we had a bit more excitement between the stop and the final sprint.  A PT Cruiser came absolutely flying past us on the two lane road.  We were going into a curve and a man was crossing the road to get his mail.  It could have been a very dicy situation.

Not long afterwards a Greenville County Sheriff car came around us with his lights flashing and siren wailing.  My first thought was that he was coming after us for having such a large group on the road.  Nope, he went right past us.  I overheard people talking on the radios saying that he was going after the PT Crusier.

Sure enough, we came to a road block in the road.  I counted at least six Greenville County Sheriff vehicles.  They didn’t even pull the guy off the road.  He was blocking the entire right lane and there were deputies climbing all over the place.  Several riders started cheering.

I had a little trouble getting my camera going before the sprint and ended up toward the back.  This was the one I was hoping to use to get some good video to explain what happens in a field sprint.  Well, I guess I would get the chance to do it from the back!

If you are wondering, it took about eight minutes to cover the distance to the finish line once Sperry blew the whistle.  I was able to work my way up through the group and as we neared the finish I was in the top 20 or so riders.  I did have one touchy moment in my dash.

Of course, for most of the time the ride within the attack zone is pretty tame.  I was simply trying to work my way into position for the final excitement while trying not to work too hard!  However, when we got within sight of the finish it was time to go.  Things got much more jumbled at that point.

As I was getting squeezed by a rider to my right, another rider to my left came across my front wheel.  It was just one of those racing things.  I don’t believe either of us was “at fault.”  However, I was quite thankful for those bumping drills!  He jerked right out of his saddle and then got straightened up.  I did what you were supposed to and didn’t go jerking around and it was all over in a second.

Actually, I guess a wreck would have made better video!  The Greenville News reports, “Cyclist records own death.”

At that point, I just sat up.  There was nothing more to gain at that point.  A small gap formed between the riders ahead and myself.  Looking at the video, I get the sense I wasn’t the only one who had had enough!

I’m looking forward to next week when we’ll take a break from the regular UWBL and I’ll be riding in the cancer fighting fund raising ride for Susan Sullivan.  Joey Sullivan, Susan’s husband, was one of my teammates on the ride to Texas.  It certainly makes the ride mean more to me.

 

Tags: UWBL

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.