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 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.

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.
~K