A ‘fun’ ride
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Today I did something different. It was the City of Angels Fun Ride. We’d seen this ride go by last year. The idea of riding with a rolling road closure was appealing, since it meant that we wouldn’t have to stop at all. So I thought I’d try it. I guess I was expecting a well-disciplined group that could ride smoothly together, which can be a lot of fun. When I got there, I saw Ben from the Sunday Morning ride group, so we rode together.
As it turned out, this was a sort of different usage of the word ‘fun’ with which I was previously unfamiliar. Because of the rolling road closure, they required that we ride in one large group. This was a lot like riding in a large racing peleton, but with mostly riders who do not know how to ride in a peleton. So the end result could more accurately be described as ‘harrowing’. We toured around the city, but really couldn’t do any sightseeing, since I didn’t dare look away for even a second. During the first part of the ride, I only saw one rider crash. This was pretty remarkable, considering all the bumping and bonehead moves that I saw going on in the group.
They had a rest and snack stop at the Ford Theater in Hollywood. I grabbed an orange and a few cookies. Then, when it was time to go, several more riders fell while pulling out of the parking lot. They hadn’t realized that the street was uphill, and they were in the wrong gears. Turkeys.
For some inexplicable reason, the police escort we had forced us to go really slowly into Griffith Park. We rode through the park, and then made one lap around it. At the end of the lap, we were about to leave the park and ride back to the finish. But they made us all stop. They said we had to wait 10 minutes for some reason that they really didn’t make clear at all. At this point, I’d had enough. I wasn’t enjoying it. So I unpinned my number from my jersey, pulled out of the line, and rode home.
The ride home was very nice and relaxing. Even having to deal with cars and traffic signals was much mellower than my experience riding in that group. So overall, it was not an especially nice ride.
77 miles.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Stan,
I was in that event as well. I’m not new to bicycling nor do I now know about the rules of the road and etiquette, but this was the first Organized ride I have particated in and first in its magnitude both in distance and the amount of climbing. However, I may have been on the knuckleheads you speak so highly of, my apologies. But did you see all the damn poles and crap? Then it wouldn’t be LA if there weren’t any.
Do you remember seeing a bike with old-school late 80’s/early 90’s disc covers on the back wheel. Well…that was me.
Btw, do you happen to have the printed route map? If you do, can you please post? Thanks.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Wow. I didn’t spellcheck. I meant potholes, not poles. “on the knuckleheads” should have been “one of the knuckleheads”
April 27th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Well, from my perspective of having been a Category 2 racer way back when and having ridden in 200-rider peletons, there is one overriding rule to riding in a group:
Don’t Make Any Sudden Moves.
That means that if you don’t see the pothole, you ride through it. Or you hop over it and let the guy behind you deal with it. But you don’t dodge it. I saw one guy dodge a manhole cover yesterday. A *covered* manhole. Just a little bump. And for that he dodged around it and could very well have taken down 20 riders. That’s what I mean by ‘bonehead moves’. It’s well and good to try and avoid obstacles, but not at the risk of knocking down other riders. Besides, if you knock them down, there’s a good chance you’re going down, too. It’s just not worth the risk.