TTT at UVic, June 20, 2019

[Mikael]

Dear all,

There may be some impromptu changes to the regular Team Time Trial tomorrow because Police representatives have promised to visit some time during our regular ride. This is what I would like us to do please:
1. Dress in our nicest kit.
2. Please stop when the police arrive so that TSC representatives have a chance to engage with the police.
3. A small number of individual have been nominated to engage with the police on our behalf. If you have not been contacted I will ask you to try your outmost to refrain from engaging with police on behalf of TripleShot and give our representatives a little space.


Some background information (this is wordy and lengthy):
1. On Monday June 17 I received an anonymized forwarded message that had been sent to the UVic Campus Security Services:

---quote below---
I am writing to you as a concerned employee at UVIC.

Every Thursday morning there is quite a large cycling group that treats the ring road like their own race track. While I am conducting my work duties I have witnessed them speed (60km/h+ in a 40km/h zone), run the stop sign at full speed passing cars on both sides that are stopping, and cutting off pedestrians at crosswalks because they refuse to slow down or stop. After all, they are racing.

The group that organizes this is training for races. With 50-60 riders on ring road between 6:00-7:00am, it will not be long until one of these cyclists causes an accident.
--quote above---

2. I responded by sending this message:

Quote below---
Thank you for passing this message along to me. I will certainly disseminate this to the executive committee and to members to remind them of our responsibility to be safe and respectful road users.
I have not observed the kind of riding that the writer describes. Of course, it is likely that their perception is different from mine and the writer’s perception is very important to me. Nevertheless, I can assure you that TripleShot members would immediately sanction riders who ride as described in the message.
I welcome messages from other road users who have comments on our riding. I, and the other members of the executive, take these messages very seriously.
Quote above----

3. It would appear that the original sender also sent the message to the police because a TSC group was, as I am told, stopped by a police person on Ring Road during the regular Tuesday ride. At that point members had a respectful discussion with the police who informed the members that the police had received reports of “ -speeding, crosswalk issues and passing cars on both sides.” The police also said that they would return on Thursday with a speed measuring laser.

4. As you can imagine there has been a lively discussion among executive members about this issue. Thinking positively, it is really great that the police is willing to engage with TSC about our riding. On the other hand, there is a great worry that we will not be able to reach a solution that will allow continuation of our Thursday ride at UVic.

I have my fingers (and toes) crossed that we will be able to continue our Thursdays at UVic because it is one of my favourite rides. Hopefully, a calm and respectful interaction will lead to a positive outcome.

I remain hopeful,

Mikael

[Ddallin]

Thanks for this Mikael. Tremendous work on behalf of the TSC club.

[Mikael]

Hip Hip Hurrah for TripleShot!

Kudos to Ritchie, Peter and all the members.

I just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know that united we succeed.

We had a very constructive interaction with a representative from the Police department during our ride this morning. Briefly, the Police are as concerned as we are about safety on our roads. Somebody sent them a message about a safety issue related to our riding and he promised that the police will visit us every time there is a complaint about our riding. While the police are very encouraging of bike riding in general, the safety of all road users, including us, trumps everything else.

The important lesson for us, I think, is that we have a lot of control over our future on the Ring Road. If we ride with respect for all road users we will be able to ride there for a long time.

Kudos to Ritchie Hughes and the other members of the group who on Tuesday started us off in the right direction when engaging constructively with the police on Ring Road.

Kudos to Peter Lawless who (again) engaged with the Police on our behalf this morning. It is not a coincidence that everybody leaves happy when Peter is involved.

Final but most important kudos, and this made me particularly proud to be a member of TSC: All the other riders this morning patiently waited while Peter engaged with the officer. I did not hear a peep from anybody else even though I know that many of us thought that we could contribute something “very important.”

Thoughts on further ride improvements are always welcome. Some have already been debated and concluded. Maybe we should start a list?

1. Not allowed to pass Mikael on the first lap.
2. …….

Cheers
Mikael

[Alan]

This is all good, and very helpful except this: "I have witnessed them speed (60km/h+ in a 40km/h zone)"
If they have witnessed me going "60+" when the posted speed limit is 40, I hope they get their speed guns checked... just saying.
Unless of course I made myself super aero, like Pete Lawless...

[Lister Farrar]

Thanks to Mikael, Peter, Martin, John D and all the members who made the ‘interaction’ positive.

Some thoughts in the same vein on ttt etiquette from over the years since we started it:

In vcls and ttt, slower teams and riders often can’t hear faster teams and riders passing. At the track the term “stick” is used to indicate passing and suggest what the slower rider/group should do. Helpful for newbies not sure what to do, vs “on the right” which can get lost in the wind and doesn’t actually suggest what to do. It’s also staccato, cuts through the wind noise better, and easier to say around heavy breathing. Bonus: you’re halfway to being a track cognoscenti!

Re cars in the way
Sometimes it helps to think of interruptions by awkward drivers who decide to pull into your lane and slow down as race prep. Such as when you’re in the vehicle caravan bringing bottles to Peter Sagan at Roubaix and David Brailsford steers the sky car in front of you. . It’s good distraction and refocusing practice. At least for the youth team, they seem to like seeing a performance advantage from an interruption, vs an annoyance. (The refocusing part, not the passing a car part.)

Unrelated to traffic and safety, how about what to do with someone who’s too strong for the team? You could get mad at them for not hearing “steady!”, but there’s a better way. Anytime someone’s shredding a paceline, the gapped rider (Ie #2) can simply do whatever pull they can handle (leaving enough energy to get on the back), swing over and let the rider behind (#3) do what they can. It’s not like the rider off the front is essential to catch. Think of it as putting on your own oxygen mask before you help others.

Someone too weak? Ask them to sit on. Show them how by riding at the back for a lap with them on your wheel. They will see your movement from back of the train to back of the riders falling back. Easier than waving arms, pointing and yelling. It’s still super good skill practice and we all need to get over our egos “Must. Do. Pull.”

L

[shawn]

Love it, Lister. Really great suggestions. I have also been thinking that the track "stick" call would be useful at ttt workouts. It basically means " Please stick to your line and keep doing what you're doing and don't change anything because we are passing you momentarily and it would be risky." But it's easier to say while bleeding from the eyeballs

Shawn

[John D]

Good advice Lister.

I believe we also spoke recently about the need to not focus only on the wheel in front of you in your TTT group, but to look down the road ahead of the group to have a sense of what's coming up. This is particularly important on the Ring Road where we have multiple TTT groups traveling at different speeds, cars and service vehicles passing us or pulling in/out of the Ring, pedestrians trying to cross at crosswalks (or not), and deer darting across the road at random.

If you're focused solely on the wheel in front of you, it doesn't leave a lot of time to react when the situations changes.

JD