Tripleshot Cycling

The Friday B ride seems more "springy" that usual. Going down Mt Doug X- Road I was in the second row rapidly overtaking the leader. I elected to slow down (too quickly) and in retrospect that could have caused a pileup. A hand signal seemed ill advised as we were going at least 40 kph. What is best?

-slow down sooner and yell "slowing" (will have to work on my voice projection last practiced in Drama 101)
-pass the leader on the left (or right)- I think this is not a safe move.

Gerry

My 2 cents...

Quarterwheeling (wheels overlapping with the riders in front of you) is a bad habit generally, but can be OK in a pinch if a group is compressing and you want to avoid excessive sharp braking (which tends to magnify and get more panicky down the line). Sitting out to the side a bit can put you in the wind enough to slow you down, while protecting the wheels of the riders in front and behind you.

Calling (loudly) "Slowing!" is always a good idea in those situations. Gerry, you and I both need to pretend we have a bullhorn. Signal with your hand if you feel comfortable doing so, but a loud voice is probably more attention-grabbing.

Riders in front should generally be pedalling *hard* going downhill--not coasting--in order to keep the rest of the group (in the draft) from compressing up behind them. Of course, there are corners on Mt. Doug X that limit speed so the riders behind need to anticipate this and help the leaders out by keeping a safe distance.

Others may have different takes...

Martin

My sincere apologies about Friday's B3 ride.
I was in the front and there were deer on the road just before the s curve on Mount Doug x road.
We weren't pedalling in front because when we looked behind, we didn't see the group and my inexperience with the B3 Friday ride is I didn't anticipate that I should be pedalling like mad and that the group would naturally join back on.
Lesson learned, I appreciate the feedback.
Heidi

The pedalling hard thing applies if the group is all together and if there aren't deer or sharp curves ahead. Sounds like this was a bit of an unusual situation, so my comments should be viewed as applying in general, rather than necessarily applying to this specific case.

Martin