One of greatest cycling pleasures is riding with a mate. Riding ten centimeters off each other’s rear wheel for hours; trust is a beautiful thing. You swing over, ease your effort slightly so your mate rides through, you then tuck behind, in the draft, close and fast. It is the best. @Kah touches on this and other transcendent benefits from a ride with a mate.
VLVV, Gianni
I sometimes wonder if the Rules were meant to be followed backwards, from 93 to 1. For example, the Principle of Silence in Rule #65 decrees that the bicycle should be silent. The mechanical benefits of a well-maintained steed are clear: respect for the machine and in return, speed and efficiency. Now, a silent bicycle with a smooth rider on board is well on his or her way to achieving Rule #6: a free mind via fluidly harmonic articulations.
I went for a road ride with my friend Brett today. The weather forecast wasn’t great, but he had spotted a gap in the passing showers and we meant to make the most of it.
After the usual early gasbagging we navigated traffic through town and settled into single file, and I was led towards the highway. For the most part we’re close enough that he fills my immediate field of vision, and I’m afforded to admire the ocean at my periphery and trust him with the road ahead. As I follow, I don’t really have to think twice about what I’m doing, but rather just respond to body language interlaced with hand gestures. We didn’t speak for a while, both seemingly left with our own thoughts as we swapped turns seamlessly.
As my legs started to settle into their own rhythm I got a chance to watch him ride. The cliche joke is that cyclists spend a lot of time staring at each others’ arses while out on our bikes (a thought commonly shared by the most homophobic). There are so many better things to look for when following a fellow Cyclist who knows what he’s doing. Brett has still shoulders, a good position, and an elegant supplesse to his pedal stroke. Similarly, watching his hand gestures gives a glimpse into his mood for the day too.
When I take my turn on the front, I try to emulate this stillness while maintaining our silent communication of the road conditions ahead. When I’m looking ahead at him, I’m not staring at his arse, I get to see through him – his experience of cycling means I am never surprised by the road conditions and for the most part our speed ebbs and flows rather than jerks and surges. This trust means eventually, slowly, finally – my mind cleared itself from the chatter that the typical work week leaves me with and a stillness follows.
I guess the difference between the tacit knowledge embodied by my riding buddies and the explicit knowledge that the Rules are trying to impart is the same as my Gran being a phenomenal chef; instinctively knowing just when and how to do the right thing, and how I have to Google how to hard-boil an egg. Obviously the difference is in our relative amounts of experience preparing food, but also in our interest and care in cooking. At some point, we just have to head out and learn through doing, transforming the theory of the Rules into innate knowledge.
As we rolled back toward the city, my legs burning from our earlier effort, my mind maintains that same stillness. Except now I’m more aware, awake, alive. I’m looking closely at my ally and adversary knowing he’s going to jump at any moment. When he doesn’t go, I have a dig (only friends attack friends right?), and this time I know whether he’s following when I hear the click-thunk of the derailleur engaging the sprint cog as we headed for the town-line sprint.
My world shrunk to the immediate visceral sensations of hurtling towards the end of the ride, tucked into the V-locus with my legs burning as I desperately try to gasp in air, I didn’t even care who got to the line first. For a few glorious moments, my mind was free.
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Meant for that last post to be a response to @andrew.
@scaler911 Cheers for the response and the info!
@ChrisO
Nice job. I love watching the TTT's--everyone in the same kit, perfect formation, maximum efficiency.
So true about teaching and learning. Unfortunately I think some people go to club rides and get what @antihero describes as a valuable learning experience, but they come away thinking everyone is arrogant and unfriendly.
I think it comes from the basic concept of bikes being toys and for fun. They wouldn't turn up at the local rugby/football club and expect to train with the A team even though they haven't been there before and don't know the rules. But with bikes they think they can stay upright so that's all there is to it.
Anyway, just got sent a nice shot of our team from yesterday. Not quite as tight as we should be but we were going across a couple of side roads right then and I think we were looking out for anything coming. The guy on the front, Jamie, is light but incredibly aero.
I'm at the back in this one - better than I was in my first TT a few months ago but still need to get down and stretch more. It's not a proper TT bike - it's my Ridley Noah converted, so I can't do much more except maybe lengthen the stem.
Oh and the kit is not matching - our sponsor ordered the wrong skinsuits. The one I'm wearing is like a Cross weight fabric, so Jamie wisely decided to stick with last year's lighter version. Unfortunately they didn't have any left in my size.
Oh fuck, I recall trying to hang with the big dogs at the VVhidbey Cogal last fall. Many lessons humbly learned, including the reminder from @frank and @urbanwhitetrash that it was time to apply Rule #65 and replace my chain, or fuck off.
Then they promptly dropped me. Good times.
This is the essence of why I ride. The mind clearing powers of a V and Dime ride. If you are on the bike in search of the man with the hammer, rule #6 compliance will naturally follow. It normally takes a good 20 minutes for the internal chatter to subside but its at its most pure after an hour or more as you're staring down the tunnel. No work issues, no velomihottie issues, no money issues, just the whirl of the cogs and cage, the hum of rubber, and your heart beat keeping time in your ears.
For some reason though during these most absent times my head seems to tilt ever so slightly to the left, or so I'm told.
@andrew
Practice, go on the Sunday group ride, do your time, at the back, watch, look and learn, but for F*cks sake do it where you won't be a danger to anyone else. I mean this in the nicest possible way, thrashing yourself on the front for 2 mins is doing no-one any help, and as soon as the road points up you are just a hazard to be negotiated around, but hang in there, hold those wheels, go full gas for as long as you can cause sooner or later if you stick at it you will drive the group, lead the tempo up the climbs, and be there for the final.
@andrew
Show a bit of respect for those geriatric tourers would be my tip number one.
I don't know where you are but in the UK any CTC ride will be filled with blokes who've been on more rides than you've had hot dinners.
Some of them will tell you what to do, sometimes in no uncertain terms, but mostly it's a matter of look and learn. It's easier to do it there than trying to learn while going into the red-zone with the local chain gang.
Audax rides - as definitely opposed to sportives - are also good places to learn with people who have a lot of miles in their legs and aren't trying to prove anything.
Very good article, all the reasons i ride whether it be a group or solo effort. As for the geriatric tourers, i owe a few of the boys for towing me home after 160k solo and getting caght by the man with the hammer!
Regarding the "cliche joke", my usual riding partner is my VMH and I'm hapy to report that I do spend a considerable proportion of any given ride staring at her arse.