A Saturday training ride in pouring rain - and paceline cycling

Submitted by Stan

The sun is shining this Sunday afternoon. It sure would have been nice if it had been yesterday morning.

I was up at 5:30 AM, and, having laid out all of my cycling gear the night before, made it out the door in time to ride out to meet up with my friends in "Le Peloton", a great cycling group I've been riding with for the past four years.  I guess misery loves company.  It was pouring rain by the time I arrived on my bike at 8th and Blanca at 6:45 AM.  Are we nuts, or what??? Trying to keep from getting too cold, we set out immediately for Richmond, in the vain hope that perhaps the weather would be a bit more tolerable riding South.    By the time we made it to Iona, where my friend David took my picture here, it was clear we were in for a long, wet ride.

Stan at Iona, near Vancouver Airport-->

Actually, as long as you are prepared for it, riding in the rain is not too bad.  You just have to keep moving to stay warm, and try to think of other things.  Riding together with friends makes a huge difference. There's lots of things to talk about when you're on the road.  Remarkably, our overall moving average, despite some rather strong headwinds, was just over 27 kph over the entire journey.  How did we do it? By riding in what is known as a paceline, or 'double echelon'.  This form of group riding (a group riding like this is also known as a 'Peloton', which is why my regular cycling group is called that) is absolutely invaluable for long distance cycling, such as what we'll be doing in June.

Here's a diagram of how it's done:

The idea is that the inner line moves just a little bit faster than the outer line. The lead cyclist then crosses over and falls back, so that everyone gets a brief turn at the front.  Riding consistently when in close formation is absolutely essential. You must NEVER hit the hand brakes - every action must be predictable, as, in order to take advantage of the aerodynamics of group riding you are usually no farther than two feet from the back wheel of the cyclist ahead of you. Since visibility is limited, cyclists at the front use hand signals if there are obstructions to look out for.   That said, if you know and can trust the people you are riding with, and everyone looks out after everyone else, group riding is safe, enjoyable, and a tremendous energy saver.  Cyclists riding in a group formation can save up to 40% energy over an individual riding on their own - a huge bonus when you are riding long distances, especially over long relatively flat stretches and against strong headwinds.

The key is, when group riding, YOU MUST NOT RACE.  There are no 'winners'.  Everyone rides together, and helps the other to conserve energy.  Sure, we like to, and almost always do a 'sprint', or fast, short race, usually at the end of the ride when the final goal is in sight. But when riding in a paceline, the goal is to keep together and maintain an easy-to-manage pace that helps to ensure no one is dropped. I would strongly encourage anyone on the GearUp4CF tour who has not done group riding before to practice riding in paceline during training.  It's great fun, and hugely beneficial.  If we can do this as a GearUp4CF team, it will help everyone on the ride.

For more information about paceline group riding technique and some useful tips, click here .

At any rate, we rode together, covering about 80 km, until we stopped for coffee around 10:00 AM. Then, one by one, the guys started breaking off to head for home.

By the time I headed out to UBC, I was on my own. Thankfully, by then, the clouds started to break up, and the sun started to peek through the clouds.

<-- a view from my bike, heading along the UBC endowment lands (don't worry, I stopped to take this photo!).  Note the little patch of blue sky on horizon. It was so nice to see sunshine after such a rain-soaked morning. My Garmin GPS, an amazing little device, is in the foreground. It plots the exact route shown in the map below, as well as elevation gain, speed, cadence (pedal stroke rate), temperature and heart rate through a wireless receiver. 

The final loop past Locarno Beach was beautiful, I had to stop to take a few pictures before ascending the big hill up Spanish Banks (a nice change from the flats of Steveston).

Click on photos for a larger view-->

Then it was a fast ride down Marine Drive, hitting over 40 kph down the slight, -2% downhill grade towards 41st before heading home.

Final distance, just over 120 km.  Next week, we're heading for the mountains!

My route today. More details of the ride can be found at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31249725 -->

BTW, donations are pouring in for GearUp4CF. I'll publish results to date in my next Journal entry.  Thank you so much for your support, it really means a lot both to me, and to Roman, Madison and Hailey, the kids I am riding for.  I am delighted to announce that the elementary school they attend is organizing a GearUp4CF fundraiser to support our ride. I'll be going to the school, taking my bike, to tell over 200 kids about CF and why we are doing the ride during a school assembly being planned in early June.  We're so excited about this!

Speaking of donations, Kitty Chavarie had a great weekend during her fundraiser on Saturday.  We still have some work to do, however, before we can reach our official team goal of $90,000, posted on our Gearup4CF web site at www.gearup4cf.org . We're only about a third of the way. If you have not contributed, and would like to, just click on the name of any of the riders in this Journal, and send in a donation on their 'official' bio page, maintained by the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  Or click on www.gearup4cf.org and select your favorite rider there.


Thanks again for your support!

- Stan






Would you like to sponsor a favorite rider? Click on their name anywhere on this journal to open their "bio" on the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis GearUP4CF web site, click on the button "Sponsor this Rider", and you will join our team!