Andiamo Cycling Club's Wednesday evening ride was coined the "Edge Of Darkness" ride in memory of our friend Mike "The Chin" Franco. The EOD Ride is a fast group training ride (18-22mph) for experienced riders who meet at the Just Riding Along Bicycle Shop every Wednesday from April to September at 5:30pm sharp to ride the same 26 mile loop. *We will be starting a "B" Ride next week.
For safety with this technical, fast paced ride we put together some guidelines for participants to adhere to:
WAIVER - Every participant must have a signed Andiamo CC Waiver on file (forms will be available at the shop to sign if you have not completed one).
GROUP SIZE - Groups larger than 8 do not provide sufficient opportunity for riders to train at a high enough intensity, since too much time will be spent in relatively low-intensity drafting. Large groups are also not as safe on Burnt Mills and Lamington. We will attempt to split into groups of comparable abilities that aims to keep group size between 4 and 8, and identify the groups at JRA before starting the ride.
PASSING & OVERTAKING - There are three sections where the group is moving fast and passing should be limited. During these sections, the rider initiating a pass should check behind them to ensure that another rider isn’t overtaking them and has already overlapped their wheel. After starting a pass, the rider should remain in their lane, and move to the right after overtaking. On all sections, you can and should pass a rider that has allowed a gap to form from the rider in front. Call “on your left” when passing:
Burnt Mills: Passing only for gapped riders.
Lamington Road: Passing for gapped riders, and within approx. 0.5 mile from the finish line at the signpost at the top of the hill, before the library.
Liberty Corner Road: Passing for gapped riders, and during the climb.
PACE LINE ETIQUETTE - Specific rules for the EoD ride:
“Hanging off the back”: You may stay at the back of the pace line and not pull, in which case you should drift back to let anyone coming off the rotation in ahead of you.
We have riders with different fitness levels. More fit riders should take longer pulls, and less fit ones should take shorter pulls. If you can’t take a pull while maintaining speed, rotate to the back and either drop or hang off the back.
You can slowly increase the speed, but avoid trying to drop the group unless you are on the last half of Lamington or on Liberty Corder Rd and want to break off.
Refer to https://usacycling.org/clubs/club-tool-kit/tips-for-pacelines for pace line tips.
Thanks to Ken E. for putting together the guidelines and providing beer afterwards. We welcome new riders, just show up before 5:30pm on Wednesday, ready to ride (fast!).
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