Crashing

Monday night I went riding with my daughter. We attended the Chit Chat ride that leaves from Joy Ride bike shop on Monday night @ 6:00. The original intent of the ride was a recovery ride and introduce new riders to riding in a group. Like all Monday Rides, Recovery ride really doesn't mean much if you don't have something to recover from that you did on the weekend. Inevitably what happens is there are some people that want to race...or at least go fast. A Feeding frenzy develops when you have this many people riding bikes together. Don't get me wrong it's just fun to go fast in a group. The bummer is it blows apart the group to the point to where it was lots of small groups.

That's what happened last Monday. The intent was to split into multiple groups of ability, but then that didn't really work and for the most part the group ended up going 23 mph for the first 10 miles. Granted it was wind aided, but all the same, it's a struggle for those caught with a little less fitness. Plus it makes it a struggle to really work on bike form. What I mean by that is not only on smoothing out your pedal stroke, but also working on being smooth in a group, and heck to even recover. Plus it's hard to go fast for very long if you aren't comfortable sitting inches from the wheel in front of you.
I digress....




That wasn't really the point of this post. No actually I was reading Steve Tilford's blog today and he had this picture.

And it reminded me of a couple things...First on the aforementioned Chit Chat ride, my daughter mentioned "Dad, I'm not really afraid of crashing anymore."

You see last year on the Chit Chat ride she was struggling to keep up about half way on the ride and trying to hold a position in the draft when she went off the road. Yep - Crash. Ruined her for a while, was afraid of getting close to a wheel. Then this spring she was messing around with some crappy skate boards we've got laying around and wiped out...not once but twice. Scraped her elbows and now per her proclamation, "I'm not really afraid to crash anymore." I guess that is what it takes. I know I'm scared to death to fall racing right now...spent the better part of the last few years with a sore shoulder that was sparked from crashing and breaking my collar bone, then crashing again on the same shoulder. Hasn't been the same since. But - there is something about crashing and getting it out of your system that allows your brain to over ride the fear of crashing.


Steve's picture of the guy endoing over his front wheel reminds me of a gleeful adventure with my buddy David Cech where we spent hours doing front endos into a snow bank in a parking lot flipping over the handle bars and landing in the snow. It was a riot and I suppose in retrospect good for the confidence and also good practice for crashing. A little bumping and touching while on the bike builds that same confidence and allows you to be more comfortable in a pack....A relaxed rider is a safe rider. That's why riding in a group in a controlled tempo in a pace line is good.

That said...I'll bet the guy in the picture lands on his feet!