Rant

In the tradition of Dave Zabriski's peloton interviews I will begin the post with one. While this isn't word for word this is the best as i remember it.

Rider 1: Who's the damn moron who keeps leading the field into traffic!
Rider 2: That would be me.
Rider 1: You can't lead a group of 60 riders into traffic!
Rider 2: Hmphh...It's only 40.

What led to this nice little interview was possible the dumbest group ride i have ever been a part of. For nearly 3 years now i have taken part in a ride, named after a local community college, that occurs on a saturday morning in the northwest suburbs of a big midwestern city that is located on a big lake.

Since last year i have been commenting on how this ride is getting choppier and choppier as it grows. Now before i rant i will make the disclaimer that at times i have done stupid stuff too but this was nuts. Let me give you some examples.

Incident 1: Just before a busy intersection is a right turn followed by a short downhill into the intersection. The road we cross is a busy road and most of the time we have to stop. While most of us are slowing down one joker decides to prove his agility and sprint to the intersection. In the process he nearly hits a pothole and almost takes a rider out trying to avoid the hole. My response: "Can we stop racing for stop signs?&#!"

Incident 2: The next major road crossing people at the front of the field start crossing the road with an oncoming truck coming from the left. We had to yell stop to some riders who were just assuming that beacuse the first rider went, the other 50+ riders could cross too. Finally cars from both directions stopped so we all could cross safely.

Incident 3: Just before the next major road crossing (notice a pattern here) we have a sprint to the stop ahead sign. That was all fine and fairly clean but then we have to turn onto a busy street with no shoulder for 500m to get to the next road. It is a blind corner to the left because of trees. So the first rider to arrive(rider 2 in interview above) just turns onto the road without stopping. I'm maybe 15 feet behind him. He doesn't say anything, doesn't call out car left so I'm assuming (my mistake) that nothing is coming from the left. When i reach the intersection there is a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming down the hill. Immediately i yell truck left! Now i'm getting pissed. "Rider 2" put a whole bunch of people in danger.

(Insert rider inteview above at this point)

Incident 4: Same rider from incident 1 while going up a hill almost takes a teammate out. This is when i notice the guy is listening to his ipod!

So in 1 hour there were 4 incidents where people could have gotten seriously hurt all because of stupidity.

I usually peel off from the ride after the hills and that's what i did this morning. I haven't heard yet but i'm waiting to hear of a crash or two.

I don't know what needs to be done but i'm getting tired of it. I'm honestly am really starting to see why so many people drive by and yell at cyclist to get off the road. When we ride like this it does no good.

And for the love of God, DON'T BRING YOUR IPOD TO A GROUP RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

So instead of being able to write a nice post about how great it was to see a friend recovering from an injury at the ride, how i enjoyed the sprint, or how i felt good on the hills, i'm writing about this crap.

I think i'm done but i'm still steaming.

Hoping next week is better...