RIDE REPORT
Wednesday, 21 June 2023, Nightmare on Elm Street
Ride Leader: Jack Donohue
33 or 42 miles, 10:00 am start from Bedford, MA
Bikers (21): Jack, Aviram Cohen, Barry Kaditz, Barry Nelson, Bill Widnall, Butch Pemstein (sweep), Craig Tulig, Curt Dudley-Marling, Dave Pierson, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Frank Aronson, Gary Williams, Gene Ho, Joel Bauman, John Kitchen, Sue Amsel, Susan Linz, and first-timers Bill Perry, Chris Harris, and Don Amsel.
Three riders opted to do the 42-mile route, bagging an additional Elm Street.
My main concern was maintaining the advertised pace. When the Wednesday Wheelers started, it required an average pace of 13 mph to join the group. In those days I thought this was a piece of cake, hardly worth mentioning. Fast forward several decades and it presented more of a challenge.
I gave my speech about arrowing, stressing that each arrow must absolutely stay at their post until released by the sweep. I enlisted Butch, who had been my sweep on many past rides.
We had yet another perfect day for cycling and a good group - what could go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually. It turned out the ride was aptly named, since everything that could go awry did.
We started out in classic WW mode, arrows coming forth at every turn. We had an early breakaway, but all the faster riders had GPS navigation so I wasn't too worried about them.
There was some forward arrowing going on, riders going ahead of the leader and arrowing. That worked well, until Butch went MIA and no one seemed to know if he was ahead or behind or in a parallel universe.
After we discovered that Butch was missing, confusion reigned. The fast riders either went their own way or joined the long ride. So we were left with a group of about eight riders that stayed together until the end, since the human arrow system had broken down and I didn't want to lose anyone else. Lesson learned: leader must absolutely, positively, have a visual of a stopped human arrow at each turn before proceeding.
We did pass the four advertised Elm Streets, or five if you were an overachiever.
Thanks to Butch for sweeping and all the human arrows along the way.
My main concern was maintaining the advertised pace. When the Wednesday Wheelers started, it required an average pace of 13 mph to join the group. In those days I thought this was a piece of cake, hardly worth mentioning. Fast forward several decades and it presented more of a challenge.
I gave my speech about arrowing, stressing that each arrow must absolutely stay at their post until released by the sweep. I enlisted Butch, who had been my sweep on many past rides.
We had yet another perfect day for cycling and a good group - what could go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually. It turned out the ride was aptly named, since everything that could go awry did.
We started out in classic WW mode, arrows coming forth at every turn. We had an early breakaway, but all the faster riders had GPS navigation so I wasn't too worried about them.
There was some forward arrowing going on, riders going ahead of the leader and arrowing. That worked well, until Butch went MIA and no one seemed to know if he was ahead or behind or in a parallel universe.
After we discovered that Butch was missing, confusion reigned. The fast riders either went their own way or joined the long ride. So we were left with a group of about eight riders that stayed together until the end, since the human arrow system had broken down and I didn't want to lose anyone else. Lesson learned: leader must absolutely, positively, have a visual of a stopped human arrow at each turn before proceeding.
We did pass the four advertised Elm Streets, or five if you were an overachiever.
Thanks to Butch for sweeping and all the human arrows along the way.
Report by Jack Donohue.
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