GT&F Revisited

Tonight at GT&F, which is basically a lycra-clad critical mass alleycat through the hills of St. Paul, the "group ride cop" showed up. I had never seen this guy before. First of all, I may have mentioned how this ride seemingly possesses the sole objective of dropping everyone possible in a series of hills in St. Paul. I mention this because it has no regrouping points. It is an urban ride with many stop lights, which can serve as a brief respite for regrouping. More likely, they become a barrier that separates a rider from the group. This of course promotes bad riding behavior as riders run lights, stop signs, and so on to stay with the pack.

The ride started out with maybe 30 or 40 riders, but was quickly broken up into maybe 15 or 20 in the front group. As normal, the front group rode as if one unit. In other words, at a stop sign, the first guy sort of slows down and rolls through with everyone else rolling through in tow. With the accordion effect, the riders toward the back often end up accelerating through the stop sign. This is rather typical group ride behavior in most clubs. Nobody treats a stop sign like the bikes are a line of cars, with each coming to a complete stop, individually, and starting again, one by one, thereby becoming completely split up and scattered amidst vehicular traffic. GT&F is, however, a bit more anarchic, and riders tend to aggressively do whatever they can to catch up, since there are no re-grouping points (like a truly well-organized ride should have). Did I mention they don't ever re-group?

Anyway, while waiting at a light, some guy I'd never seen before starts whining, "Nice stop at Ford Parkway." I turned around and he looked right at me and said, "I didn't see anyone stop back there." I wondered what his problem was. He didn't appear to be a ride leader. Anyone who has ever ridden this ride knows that this is normal behavior for this group. As we continued, he kept complaining, apparently to no one in particular. Finally, as we were stopped near the high bridge, he sarcastically announced, "I will be turning off at the top of the high bridge. It has been nice riding with all of you."

The odd thing about this group is that it is most inclusive. The other Tuesday shop ride (from a different club- and not my team) in the area is much more cliquish- and too far away for me to attend without driving to the start- which I abhor. To my knowledge, my team doesn't offer a Tuesday ride at all.

It was, to its credit, a wicked tough ride. I saw heart rates higher than I normally even see during a race.

Thankfully, another series of Tuesday crits begins in a week or so.