Today while doing a vanoty search on my name on google I happened across a ride report from a recnt road ride I had been on. In reading it I actually came away feeling pretty bad about the situation. Give it a read below and let me know what you think..

So A few weeks ago I showed up for a Frederick Peddlers ride that left from Glade Elementary up to Gettysburg and back. Today I came across the following ride report from that ride over on the Fred Peddlers site.

GET’ RIde
July 22, 2006 by Rick O’Donnell

The ride from Walkersville to Gettysburg and back, passing through Emmitsburg and then meandering through the Gettysburg National Military Park before returning via a country tour through the fields and towns of Adams County, PA, Carroll County, and Frederick County, was led by Rick O’Donnell and joined by Jeff Johnson, Dan Trivette, Jason Ashmore, and Charles Wilson. Dan joined us from outside the club, while Charlie is new to the club. Jason is also on the mailing list, but not yet a club member.

The morning started out a little iffy, with a somewhat ominous-looking bank of clouds hovering over the western ridge from Glade Elementary. As we were getting ready to leave, a local woman came by walking her dog and expressed interest in our group. She was looking for a bicycling group in which her husband might be able to participate. Rick gave her a cue sheet for that morning’s ride along with the Web site address for our club. After considering our chances for favorable weather during the ride, we decided to proceed. We were taking into account a forecast of increased probability of severe thunderstorms and heat by mid-afternoon, so wanted an early start.

We started out at somewhat easy pace, but within the first few miles Rick stopped to wait for Charlie, who appeared to be laboring on an older steel Pegeuot bike. Again, by the time we got to Links Bridge and Old Frederick, Rick stopped again to let Charlie catch up. After about 10 minutes, Rick and Charlie met again and consulted about the distance and pace advertised for the Gettysburg ride, and the availability of shorter social rides on Wednesday. Charlie agreed that maybe he should return to Glade and start his club rides with the shorter versions midweek. Charlie also agreed that he wanted to get an updated, lighter bike.

While Rick worked with Charlie, the other riders, Dan, Jason, and Jeff, had already taken off, apparently at their own pace. Rick pedaled on at an accelerated pace, seeking to return to the group. By the time Rick reached St. Mary’s Seminary, it became apparent that the remainder of the group was gone and that Rick was in for a solo ride.

With evidently improving weather, Rick decided to complete the Gettysburg ride and return. All went well through Emmitsburg and into the Gettysburg Military Park. Rick took in the historic battlefield route (West and South Confederate Aves.), enjoying the sunny scenery, the rolling terrain, and the monuments.

Rick had a little difficulty with the cue directions and Mapquest backup map when trying to exit the park to the east (Sedgwick to Wheatfield to PA 134). He decided to detour out of the main entrance to the park on Business Route 15, connecting back to PA 134 south and picking up the route again. He spent the next couple of hours touring through the corn fields back across the Maryland line, stopping at the Village store in Detour to recharge. By then (early afternoon) the sun and humidity were high and the road was radiating considerable heat. Fortunately there were only 9 miles left to go to return to Walkersville. Rick and his bike finished the tour without any problems.

Counting a couple of minor detours, Rick logged 73.2 miles at an average 14 mph, which met the advertised ride pace or slightly better. Upon arriving back to Glade Elementary, Rick noted that his car was the only one left on the parking lot. Here’s to hoping that Jason, Dan, and Jeff had a good time, wherever they went, and that they met their personal objectives for riding speed and fitness after leaving Rick behind early on.

The weather held up surprisingly well, considering that by the time Rick got home at 2:30 p.m. the sky opened up with heavy rain.

—————————————————————————————–

Now after reading the ride report I feel like an A-1 asshole for leaving rick to deal with Charlie. Unfortunately it was clear Charlie was in way over his head on this ride. He was really struggling from the ride start to stay with the group. The cold hard truth is neither Charlie nor his bike were in any condition to tackle a 70 mile road ride over any type of terrain let alone the hills up in that area.

Now I’ve been on the ride leader side of this situation before. It’s rough and you never want to discourage a potential new cyclist. Hell we’ve all ben there starting out at one point or another. When I found myself in situations like this I did just what Rick did which was try and encourage them and adjust my pace so they could keep up and hopefully finish the ride. It’s a total dammed if you do dammed if you don’t situation as ride leader under those circumstances. How do you politely tell someone they’re not really cut out for a particular ride without turning them off to group rides or worse yet the sport as a whole. A short while back we even had a lengthy discussion on such situations over on the MORE forums.

Anyhow in this case on this particular day I wasn’t the ride leader and I was under some time constraints as to a finish time. Since it looked like Rick was going to work with Charlie and give him time to ride at his own pace, Dan and I decided we needed to split off in order to finish the ride on schedule. IFor me that meant finishing with enough time to spend some of the day with Karrie.

Had I not been under time constraints I would have probably stuck with Rick until Charlie turned back. Jeff being in a similar situation time wise decided to break off and ride with us along the rest of the route.

Having made up my mind I dropped back to let Rick know we would be going ahead and that maybe we’d see him at an upcoming rest stop..

Now I didn’t want to discourage Charlie and it was certainly never my intention for Rick to end up riding alone. That being said I don’t know what else I could have done under those circumstances. I’m feeling even worse about leaving Rick as I recall him saying it was his first ride that he was leading. I’m not sure how else I could have or should have handled it. We ended up with an average speed pretty close to the advertised pace. While I can certainly justify splitting on Rick in order to get home to Karrie I still can’t shake the feeling that I was a shithead. 

Rick if you happen to read this I’m sorry we weren’t able to finish that ride together.

I’m curious to hear how some of my fellow riding buddies would have handled this one…. Did I do the right thing or was I just an impatient prick?

This entry was posted on 8/16/2006 at 12:44 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Posted in General by Crashmore 4 Comments