Any Thurs eve group rides in Davis? (SK??)

[BikeMomma]

Hi Gals -

(Cindysue, you'll like this) My employer, the City of Merced, is sending me to a two-day "Bikeways Planning and Design" class in Davis on July 13th & 14th, to learn about effective bikeways design, policy issues, circulation, etc. and includes a half-day "ride-about" tour of Davis's bikeway system. No falling asleep in THIS class! :p

Anyway, I'm bringing my bike and will be staying the night since it's an over two-hour drive one way (no telling how the morning traffic will be). Since I'll be missing my regular Thursday evening ride here at home, I'd like to find a medium to fast group ride (17-25mph range) to join in on that Thursday night (July 13). I figure in Davis there should be at least ONE such ride, right? Co-ed is fine with me, since I ride with the guys and a few gals here.

SadieKate, perhaps you could advise, since you're in Davis? I'll be staying at the Holiday Inn Express just down the road from the seminar.

Thanks Ladies! :)
~BikeMomma (Kim)

Edit: The class runs until 4:30 each day, so I could perhaps make a 6pm ride time. ~k

[SadieKate]

I'll do some sleuthing.

That's a wee bit fast for me so I'll see what I can find.

[BikeMomma]

Hey Sarah-

Thanks a bunch. If you can't find out anything, don't worry about it. Perhaps you and I could ride out somewhere, in that case (if you're free). Speed doesn't matter that much -- I just need the miles and to keep the legs moving, really.

:D ~Kim

[SadieKate]

I talked with Sherpa down at Wheelworks' today as he was leaving for the Tuesday night race ride. He highly recommended it for you. He said the group slows way down between sprints and catches the slower folks. I know it is a co-ed group. Tim (Sherpa) doesn't always go on Thursdays but between now and then I'll find someone who you can hook up with. I'll talk to the rest of the boys at Wheelworks.

http://www.davisbikeclub.org/RideSchedules/PDF/Jun_06.pdf
http://dbcraceteam.org/Team/race-rides.html

It starts at 6 pm at the Hospital which is on the NW corner of town while Holiday Inn Express is on the south central side (veddy, veddy near me). I can help make sure you find the place easily.

Where is the seminar itself?

[BikeMomma]

Thanks for checking for me. I agree, that sounds like a winner. It actually sounds like the Tuesday rides we used to do -- now our Tuesday rides are 20-23 pretty much all the way except for warm-up, with some sections of faster/slower. Our Thursday rides are an out-n-back on foothills with the entire second half of the "back" part a complete speed-fest. It's fun but wheww!!

The seminar is at the Da Vinci Building, 1632 Da Vinci Ct. It that close to you?

[SadieKate]

I just sent you a little map to my house but I know you are really more interested in the nearest Starbucks (http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?newaddr=1632+Da+Vinci+Ct&taddr=2121+Cowell+Blvd&csz=Davis%2C+CA+95616-4860&country=us&tcsz=95616&tcountry=us) which is inside Safeway. :p

There is also one by the hospital (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/locator/MapResults.aspx?a=1&StoreKey=93938&IC_O=38.547982581097%3a-121.778953429391%3a32%3a95616+(postal+code)%2c+California%2c+United+States&GAD1_O=&GAD2_O=&GAD3_O=95616+(postal+code)%2c+California%2c+United+States&GAD4_O=&radius=5&countryID=244&dataSource=MapPoint.NA) where the ride starts.

Teeny tiny toad tunnel town has 5 of them for your enjoyment.

I personally prefer Peets' (http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=1411+W.+Covell+Blvd&csz=95616&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=) mochas.

[BikeMomma]

I just sent you a little map to my house but I know you are really more interested in the nearest Starbucks (http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?newaddr=1632+Da+Vinci+Ct&taddr=2121+Cowell+Blvd&csz=Davis%2C+CA+95616-4860&country=us&tcsz=95616&tcountry=us) which is inside Safeway. :p

There is also one by the hospital (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/locator/MapResults.aspx?a=1&StoreKey=93938&IC_O=38.547982581097%3a-121.778953429391%3a32%3a95616+(postal+code)%2c+California%2c+United+States&GAD1_O=&GAD2_O=&GAD3_O=95616+(postal+code)%2c+California%2c+United+States&GAD4_O=&radius=5&countryID=244&dataSource=MapPoint.NA) where the ride starts.

Teeny tiny toad tunnel town has 5 of them for your enjoyment.

I personally prefer Peets' (http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=1411+W.+Covell+Blvd&csz=95616&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=) mochas.
Oh, you already know me SOOOO well! That was my next question.....but you knew that. :p
~K

[SadieKate]

BikeMomma,

I can't remember if I told you because time's flying so fast. I am off to Springfield, MO for the week for the eternal annual re-org here at work. Somewhat of a last minute trip.

Andrew, one of the other mechanics at Wheelworks, is currently staying with us. I've asked him and Sherpa (aka Tim and another mechanic there) to introduce you at the Thursday race ride. They have promised that one of them will be there.

I'll PM Andrew's cell phone and our home phone. If you can go down to the shop on your lunch hour or give Andrew a call Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

I bummed that I won't be here to see you at all. I'll be home mid-day on Friday - not sure when you're leaving.

I better get to the airport now or MP's going to be nagging me.:p

Sarah

[BikeMomma]

You're the greatest! :D I just sent you a PM with my home and cell #'s to give to Andrew.

I'm looking forward to this!

Thanks!
~Kim

[BikeMomma]

Wow, the seminar was truly awesome, and I came away with LOTS of great ideas to use in absorbing Merced's eventual mass bike use by students. UC Merced has only just finished its first year of classes, and lots more buildings and facilities on campus still have to be built, as well as the curriculum itself. As the years go by, we'll have more and more students attending and riding out to the campus, and that means we need to start planning for them now.....like I said, awesome seminar. Truly amazing how Davis had innovated with bike transit and made it WORK, bigtime! This afternoon, we took a two-hour bike tour of many of the types of intersections that have been improved for bikes, and may I just say now, Sarah, you are one LUCKY gal to live in Davis! It defines "bike friendly" and should help set the standard that other cities should follow......hmmm, like maybe Merced. I just have to get the bosses (and their bosses, Planning Commission, City Council, yada yada) to understand future needs and implement. That will be the hard part.

Anyhoo....the ride was great! WAY fast, but I hung on for all "sprints", which were basically accelerations to race pace (25++) for long stretches -- all except the last one, which according to a guy I met named Nate, was the fastest one and the one at which he usually gets dropped, as well. After the first sprint (there were three), I could tell I'd hang just fine, but still had Nate's warning in my head. Sure as heck, I got dropped on that last one, but that was more because of not knowing the roads than because of the faster pace, but still a combination of the two. Where I got separated was down an overpass with a hairpin left turn at the bottom. Not familiar with the corner, road surface, and the riders I was with, I took it rather cautiously instead of aggressively and ended up not being able to get back on the draft. Try as I might, I couldn't bridge back up. I started to fade just as Beth caught me (see below, I'm typing this backwards in sections!!) and we pacelined all the way in. I took some strong pulls and then started fading even more, so Beth ended up dragging my sorry bootie :p the last couple miles or so. My lungs and the yukky air just got the best of me, I think. Beth, if you ever read this, thanks again. :D ;)

I never met Andrew, and when I asked a few riders if he was there, I was answered with "I don't know who Andrew is...." I called him on our afternoon break from class to let him know I was still coming, but he never returned my voicemail. Soooo, I had no "babysitter" and ended up using a good-natured, helpful soul named Beth to direct me back to the meeting spot. As it was, she is on the UC Davis collegiate team and I assume dorms there, and being that the UC is somewhat near the hospital, the directions she gave were basically one right, and then one left and you're there. So, I got back no problem.

The stats from my computer for the ride tell it all: Ride Time = 2:01.27; Distance = 39.08; Max speed = 33.4; Average speed = 19.3; Max HR = 189; Avg HR = 153; Calories burned = 985. This all includes the slower city riding back to the car, stopping, starting, etc. Wowie....what a ride.

Fun! Although.....the center line thing is an issue with this group. Since I wasn't familiar with the riders, I tried to position myself in a "cautious" spot, and that is, on the edges of the pack rather than deep in the middle. Parts of the sprints got reeeally crazy and once in race mode, I found people would try to squeeze by and force their way up to the front, and so being on the outer edge, I found myself continually being forced near or over the center. I think the group just needs to chill out a teeny tiny bit, and then I think they'll find the center line issue isn't as much so.

I'll put it this way -- the center line issue is so big with this group that I was asked about it by the instructor of the class, who happens to be the Director of Bicycle Transportation for the City of Davis. Apparently, they get many complaints from motorists, which because most motorists can't delineate between clubs/groups, generates bad feelings between drivers and cyclists for the city as a whole. Not good.

Sarah....again, thank you SO much for hooking me up with the ride. It was awesome. I'd definitely do it again....competitive, fast, very friendly group -- just what I was looking for. They were super to this firsttimer. :)

And that concludes this report. From back at home in Atwater, this has been BikeMomma....and goodnight.:p
~K

[SadieKate]

BikeMomma, I'm so sorry about Andrew not calling you. He said he got your message but that "it sounded like you were squared away and everything." He's 22 and very courteous in some ways and a bit of a kid in others. I haven't seen Sherpa so can't figure out what he was doing either; he probably though Andrew was taking care of you. All the guys at the shop now call us Andrew's mom and dad but since we didn't actually raise him . . . :p .

Thanks for such a good write up on the ride. Do you mind if I share it with the team director? Was it David something or other that was the instructor?

Andrew normally goes to the Tuesday night ride only where they also have center line issues. There's a tandem that gets in the sprint mess there.

I hope to see you in Monterey.

[BikeMomma]

Hey SK -

Not a biggie about Andrew...tell him "no worries." Once I realized there was no Andrew, I was just hoping I could latch on to someone who could direct me back to my car parked near the hospital. Beth helped with that, so everything was fine in the end. Oh, and I got my Starbucks fix, with the drive-thru sitting conveniently right there. How perfect was that??! :cool: :D Happy camper, I was.

I don't mind at all about you sharing the ride report with the ride organizers. It was an excellent ride, except for that. There was a tandem there....man and woman aboard. Didn't get their names. I didn't get the name of the "ride leader" (for lack of a better term), unfortunately.

It does worry me that the ride seems to have bad notoriety with the City and public, evidenced by the class instructor (Tim Bustos, with City of Davis) knowing about the issue (he did sorta look at me sideways when I told him who I was going to be riding with....said they were a pretty "hard-core" group). I actually did see an oncoming car that pulled over off the road when the driver saw us coming. It struck me at the time that this may be a nearby resident who was accustomed to the ride and knows that the group takes up the road......again, not good.

Have to say tho', those s-curves at 27mph were sweeeeet! Whooowheee! :D
~Kim