UPDATE: Change in location for Cinderella Training Ride #2

[cindysue]

Hey everyone,

With almost 100 women signed up for the cinderella training rides (don't worry, we have multiple ride leaders and not everyone will show up every week), we've decided that the shopping center in livermore just wasn't big enough to accommodate everyone.

So, instead, we will repeat the ride that got cancelled today (1/14).

Please join us on Saturday 1/21 for ride #2 (or technically 1):

Cinderella Training Ride #2 (NOTE: LOCATION CHANGE)

30 miles (20 mile option). Meet at Donlon Elementary School in Pleasanton: 4150 Dorman Road, Take I-680 to Stoneridge Drive Exit, Go East on Stoneridge, Right onto Denker and Right onto Dorman.

We plan to leave promptly at 9am. Please come early, sign in, grab some free lunabars, and get ready for a great ride!

[slinkedog]

Will the ride originally planned for the 21st be moved out a week or just not happen?

[cindysue]

Will the ride originally planned for the 21st be moved out a week or just not happen?

just won't happen. Not enough parking to accommodate everyone.


EDIT:
sorry this was confusing. I meant the Livermore route won't happen. But the ride on the 21st will happen; leaving from Pleasanton....

[cindysue]

Oh and typo above (too late to edit)

You need to turn LEFT on Dorman

[SadieKate]

Ladies, can you hear her now? :D

SK

Glad to see you got home safely.

[cindysue]

hahahahaha, yes, that is a bit loud, isn't it? Well you all get the point..........

P.S. never made it to Davis for dinner. It took us over 4 hours to get home. All in all, we spend 9 hours in the car and 4 hours on the trails. Ugh! Guess everyone wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday....

[helga]

So, turn LEFT on DORMAN and NO ride on Jan. 21st? Are you going to continue the updates on this site as well as the Yahoo Pedlers Group site? Thanks, Cindy.

[cindysue]

cover your ears.........

we WILL ride on the 21st. Just the location has changed.... :) :) :)

[cindysue]

Are you going to continue the updates on this site as well as the Yahoo Pedlers Group site?

yep!

For those of you interested in last minute updates on the training rides, sign up for our yahoo group: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/pedlpushers/

[helga]

Okay, okay! All that yelling scared our new cat, and it ran and hid under the bed. It may never come out. So, I think I'll go for a ride and get ready for the training ride at (color this red) DONLON SCHOOL, LEFT ON DORMAN. My only question is how do you make those way big red letters?

[cindysue]

in the post reply window, you will see a screen that looks like a "microsoft word" document. Just click on the black "A" to change the color. Click on "sizes" to change the size.....

That window also has other features like add a link, center text, add an attachment, etc.

Hope this helps.

[bikerz]

Who from the TE gang will be at this ride? Helga and I are planning on being there...

Slinke are you coming? I'm dying to get a look at your new saddle...

That is, the ride on the 21st at Donlon School (don't want to scare Helga's new kitty...)

[slinkedog]

I'm VERY sad that I can't make this one. Blaine has a committment pretty much all day Saturday and Devon wants to take a ballet lesson at noon, so I have to take her. WAH! I REALLY wanted to do this ride, and, of course, it's supposed to be dry on Saturday. I'm very frustrated, but what can you do? I'll ride the trainer before the kids get up, I guess. :(

I'm liking the new saddle more and more. The cutout is heavenly.

[cindysue]

it's supposed to be SUNNY and cool. Hope to see ya there! Gotta take advantage of the dry weather!

[tomgrrrl]

I'm going to be there....assuming my alarm goes off :)

[cindysue]

I'm VERY sad that I can't make this one. just do what you can on the trainer. Don't lose the momentum. Do your older kids have bikes? Can you put the youngest in one of those kid-trailers? something you could do around the block?

[cindysue]

I'm going to be there....assuming my alarm goes off :) bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :D zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[slinkedog]

Yep, did my Spinervals yesterday. Looking to get a new one today and do it. May be able to get in a short road ride tomorrow afternoon. We'll see.

[slinkedog]

How was the ride? I hope you guys didn't get rained on. It's been nasty here all day. I'll never trust the weather dude again. ;)

[cindysue]

we had over 50 enthusiastic women show up despite the clouds hanging over our head, the wet ground, and the drizzle that some of us woke up to.

We split into two groups, the 20 mile and the 30 mile group. I led the 20 mile group and Bekki led the 30 mile group. The 20 mile riders (there was only a handful of us) enjoyed each other’s company, chatting and getting to know each other along the way. We took it nice and slow and ended the ride just before the 30 mile riders returned.

[cindysue]

Upon my return from the 20 mile ride, I was very sad to hear of an accident that occurred towards the end of the ride (about mile 27).

One of our fellow TE members (you know her as Helga) was coming up on a manhole cover in the road, saw it, pointed it out to the riders behind her, but underestimated the hazardous situation that a slick metal surface can prove to be.

So, what happened? I wasn’t there and can only tell you what I was told, but here’s what I know:

So, even after recognizing the manhole cover and pointing it out to the riders behind her, Frances rode over the cover, her wheels slipped, and she went down, hitting her head on the road. Thank God for her helmet (which by the way was split down the side!).

The fire truck and ambulance came quickly and transported Frances to the hospital. I joined Frances’s husband and fellow TE member, BikerZ (who was right behind her on the bike) at the hospital.

The short story is Frances is doing fine. She has some serious injuries but nothing that requires surgery at this time. She will stay overnight in the ICU for observation and I (or BikerZ) hope to have an update for everyone sometime tomorrow.

Some lessons learned for the day:

ALWAYS wear a helmet!
Don’t underestimate hazardous situations (red lights, metal surfaces, etc.)
Bring your ID and insurance and keep them in an easy to find location.

By the way, Helga is an experienced rider, rides up to 100 miles per week, and has toured Europe on her bike. The point is everyone is vulnerable to accidents, even the most experienced rider. Please don’t be overly confident. Despite warnings at the beginning of the ride not to run red lights, and to avoid slippery surfaces (manhole covers was explicitly listed), I saw a number or riders run red lights. It’s just not worth it ladies! Please put safety first!

EDIT: see BikerZ's post here: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=4943

[tomgrrrl]

I'm glad Helga is doing alright....it was very scary to see her surrounded my the firefighters and EMTs....but she was well taken care of by them and her fellow riders, and especially pal Ann.

Good wishes for a speedy recovery!!!

Ellen

[carimail]

I was reading about that accident yesterday and it really made me think. I didn't go on the training ride because i didn't want to drive all that way (I know I'm a wimp) and I've been a little intimidated about riding in a group. So I decided to parallel train and did my own 30 mile route (over by Uvas and Calero Resevoirs). I was often in very remote places with not too many people around and although my roads were nice and dry, anything could have happened and I didn't have ID on me. I'm going to make up some laminated ID cards for me and hubby that have a copy of our medical cards on the back and we can just slip them in our jerseys (hopefully whoever is helping us will look!).
Anyway, my best wishes to Frances for a speedy recovery!!

Cari

[cindysue]

I'm going to make up some laminated ID cards for me and hubby that have a copy of our medical cards on the back and we can just slip them in our jerseys

and don't forget an emergency contact #

[BikeMomma]

So sorry to hear about the accident yesterday...:( But, from what it sounds, it could have been much worse for her (broken bones, etc) and involved more riders. I guess those are positive ways to look at this.

I totally agree with Cindy. No matter how experienced you are, chances are that something will happen, someday. Maybe you can control the chances, or maybe not, in the case of a rider going down right in front of you. But ~ as Cindy said, those factors that we can control, obeying traffic laws, wearing helmets, and I'll throw in bike maintenance, will lessen the chances that anything will happen at all, or in the least-preferred case, will lessen the chances of serious injury.

Let's not let this incident discourage anyone from participating in the group rides or let it affect your confidence (I agree, though -- you can't be over-confident) or even your love for the sport. Let's just learn from it.:)

Best wishes to Helga and a hearty thanks to those who helped her (and are still). Hope the Cindy rides are incident-free from here on out. Careful gals!
~BikeMomma

[spazzdog]

One other little tip... if you're looking at it (the hazard) chances are you're gonna hit it. Once you spot your hazard ahead asjust your path AWAY from the hazard and point it out to followers without focusing your attention on it... it tends to make you swing back int towards said hazard.

Hope I 'splained that OK... I'm on my 1st cup-o-java.

For Helga: holy schla-moly grrl! All you had to do was just tell me you didn't want to unload the truck. Such extreme measures were unnecessary :eek:

Get better soon sweetie!

spazzdog

[bikerz]

The roads were wet, but not extremely slick - the manhole covers, painted lines, etc were slippery - we had been warned about them, and we were very cautious. We were riding with a large group of riders, many of whom it seemed were not really experienced in pointing out hazards, not calling out when stopping (too busy chatting!), not riding well to the right, not making the appropriate decisions about when it was ok to ride 2 abreast, and when single file was better. (This is all my opinion - I'm not an experienced rider - only one year really, but I think I'm pretty cautious).

Francie and I were both a little uncomfortable in a group like this, and by this point in the ride (27 miles into the full 30), we had gotten pretty good at positioning ourselves in front of riders we thought were a little unpredictable, and behind riders we thought signalled well. I would say we were riding in a very defensive mode, more so than when it's just us riding (we ride together at least once or twice a week in general).

When Francie went down, we were spread out from each other and the group -we were about a block's distance behind the larger group ahead of us, and I was about 20-30 feet behind Francie. I'd say the riders behind me were at least that far behind me, if not farther. So we were not in a pack or anything like that. As for speed - I haven't uploaded my ride data yet, but I'd be surprised if we were going much, if any, faster than 15 mph. The section of road was well-paved with a wide bike lane, with these dratted manhole covers every 50 or so yards.

Francie had just pointed out the umpteenth manhole cover to me with her right hand and was moving to the left to go around it on the outside. I was pointing it out to the person behind me (although I don't think anyone was near enough for it to make a difference) and was planning on going around it on the inside. It seemed to me she was well around it - I had no sense that she wasn't going to clear it when she suddenly went down - I mean it was instant - no wobble, no tumble or slide - just straight down on her right side. I managed not to hit her (amazingly) and got stopped and off my bike about 20 feet past her and ran back - her feet were still near her pedals but not clipped in (she uses half-toe cages, not clips), and she wasn't moving.

All I can think happened was her tire caught the smooth outer rim of the cover - she was almost around it but not quite, perhaps. Maybe she still only had one hand on the handlebars from signaling? I can't remember. Maybe she realized she wasn't quite around it, and turned her tire just a little too sharply to clear it at the last second? I really don't know. It's strange - we saw the hazard, we signalled it, we were avoiding it, we weren't riding too fast, or too close, or reckessly in any way. It was near the end of the ride, but it hadn't been a really hard ride, and we were not particularly fatigued. Maybe just one of those things...

Here's are some questions I have from that experience after thinking about it for a few days -

- Francie did have ID and insurance info - I knew she had it but I didn't know where it was - it turns out it was in her jersey pocket, under her jacket - there was no way we were going to get her jacket off and go though her pockets given her injuries - so what's the best place to keep that stuff? You're supposed to keep ID on your person, not the bike, because you might be separated from the bike. Even if she had a road ID around her neck, like I do, it would be hard if not impossible to get at it without moving her. (Since I was there and relatively coherent, I could provide all that info to the emergency people there, but it might not have been that way.) It's almost like you need to tell your buddy where your ID is (and hope your buddy is near you if there is an accident - what if I had dropped way back, or worse, gone up ahead, and not been nearby - there was no one else on the ride who even knew Francie's name.

- Signalling hazards - as I mentioned, were were pretty religious about signalling hazards out with our hands - but I few times I've noticed this myself - I often find myself signalling the hazard with one hand as I'm passing though or very near it - and there I am - one hand off the bars, the other waving around (not wildly, but you know what I mean) - right when I really should have both hands on the bars. And, if I ride the distance behind other riders that I am comfortable, I almost always see the hazard before they even signal it.

- distance between riders - as I said this was a large group, and I haven't done too many rides like that - I tried to keep myself a good distance behind people, and keep a steady pace, with an eye on my cadence and speed to do so. But I would suddenly find myself well up on someone - maybe my speed was not as constant as I thought, or theirs wasn't constant - but it would be hard to slow up without feeling like I was backing into the riders behind me. I know I need more experience riding in a groups of strangers since that's what the AIDS Lifecycle ride will be like, but I found it difficult.

Any of you more experienced riders have any thoughts on these questions?

[SadieKate]

Ann, not being there it is very hard to come up with any reasons. Was it her front wheel or her back wheel that hit? Even a fishtail on the back wheel could cause her to go down. Your front wheel and back wheel do not track in the same line and I have witnessed many a rider nearly clip someone's front wheel when passing them or swing around something on the road with their front wheel and still hit it with their back. It can take a very small miscalculation for this. Then, sometimes, you-know-what just happens. Paint and metal are horrible even when just slightly wet.

I have been on many group rides where the leaders talked about riding single file, paying attenting, etc., etc., at the beginning of the ride, but not during the ride. If these are truly training rides with an educational aspect targeted at new and inexperienced riders, the leaders (and all riders) may have to be more active during the ride at reminding folks about these guidelines. If you go back and look at all the Cinderella threads on this forum, one of the most frequently mentioned complaints is about the riders who are not single file and are chatting away without paying attention to traffic, both car and bikes. This wouldn't be tolerated from car drivers. It can put a heavier burden on the riders who are trying to look out for the riders behind and feel a responsibility for group safety.

Has anyone heard from Helga today? How is she doing?

[bikerchick68]

oh man, I posted on the general discussion link as well... but how scary for everyone!!! glad to hear helga (frances) is recovering... I can't even imagine how scary this was for everyone on the ride, for helgas Dh and family and for HER!

As to your question about where to carry stuff... I have photocopied on one page my medical insurance card and drivers license, then I wrote ICE numbers below it... it's in a ziploc in my seatbag. THEN I also wear RoadID around my neck... I have had people tell me I act paranoid about safety, but this reaffirms my caution I believe... if I go down, I want someone to know who I am and who to contact!!! I also carry my cell and have all my personal contact numbers in there if it still works! Accidents are just that, and can and do happen to even the most experienced people...

about hazards... I not only signal them, but the group I ride with CALLS them out... so if you need both hands you turn your head over one shoulder, keep both hands on the bars and yell at the top of your lungs HOLE! GLASS! or whatever... the front rider does their best to look ahead and signal junk BEFORE they come up on it... but we all know that's just not always possible...

when I ride in an unknown group, I do my best to maintain MY speed and line... and if my speed is faster than someone ahead of me, just before I pass I call out "passing on your left!"... if I cannot pass due to safety I turn my head and call out "Slowing!" while doing the "slowing" signal with my right hand if it's safe to do so... I've done enough group rides now to know that you can pick out "newer riders" and call ahead to them to allow them extra time to get ready for you to go by... and also to know that many "experienced" riders take a lot of silly chances and don't practice safety and/or courtesy at all times as you would think they would.

It sounds to me as tho both you and Helga were doing everything you could do to be safe... and riding well... what a horrible accident! again, I am thrilled to hear that she is recovering... :) wonderful news!

[cindysue]

I have been on many group rides where the leaders talked about riding single file, paying attenting, etc., etc., at the beginning of the ride, but not during the ride. If these are truly training rides with an educational aspect targeted at new and inexperienced riders, the leaders (and all riders) may have to be more active during the ride at reminding folks about these guidelines. If you go back and look at all the Cinderella threads on this forum, one of the most frequently mentioned complaints is about the riders who are not single file and are chatting away without paying attention to traffic, both car and bikes. This wouldn't be tolerated from car drivers. It can put a heavier burden on the riders who are trying to look out for the riders behind and feel a responsibility for group safety.


We were riding with a large group of riders, many of whom it seemed were not really experienced in pointing out hazards, not calling out when stopping (too busy chatting!), not riding well to the right, not making the appropriate decisions about when it was ok to ride 2 abreast, and when single file was better.


THANKS! This is good advice. I will pass it on....

[bikerz]

Part of it I think was that our group was really big, and split into two or three groups at times - I rode for a while with a really nice, very experienced rider, who I bugged for tips and advice (SK and Yellow know this about me! Questions questions!) and she very generously helped me out. And maybe it just turned out that the more experienced riders rode together in another group. Towards the end of the ride, just before Helga's accident, one of the ride leaders was spending more time in my group, very effectively keeping people in their lanes, which I really appreciated. I'm sure there weren't as many people all over the place as it seemed to me - it's just for a new "group cyclist" like me, I really noticed them.


about hazards... I not only signal them, but the group I ride with CALLS them out... so if you need both hands you turn your head over one shoulder, keep both hands on the bars and yell at the top of your lungs HOLE! GLASS! or whatever... the front rider does their best to look ahead and signal junk BEFORE they come up on it... but we all know that's just not always possible...And calling out hazards - that's true - I know to do that, and usually do when I ride with my usual ride partners - a good reminder to use the voice too. Thanks.

I'm probably over-analyzing it because I'm still freaked out by the accident - which had nothing to do with any of these concerns.

Thanks for the suggestions...

[snapdragen]

Sometimes all it takes is a ride leader to shout out "single file people!" to get everyone back in line.

I'm bad about pointing out stuff on the road. I usually don't see it until I'm on it, although I did become quite proficient in calling out dog and horse poop on the last ride I was on! :eek: