"What we've got here is failure to communicate"

A meetup group I belong to had posted a ride starting from Hillsboro at 10AM. The ride was supposed to be about 30 miles. After a week of warm temperatures, the weather has cooled. I thought I should ride to the ride, since it was only about 25 miles to the starting location, but wanted to avoid the hassle of wearing warm gear to the required early start, only to have to take it off and carry it when things warmed up. I finally decided that the best choice for today would be to drive to 24 Hour Fitness in Tualatin and start from there. That would leave just over 17 miles to pedal before joining the ride. I mapped a mostly new route for me. I've pedaled the Fanno Creek Trail many times when biking to Beaverton and points west, but have never biked all of it. Today I'd take a big bite into the sections I hadn't biked before. There is probably a good reason I haven't biked those sections before. It took me almost 55 minutes to ride the first 8 miles. The trail was rough, narrow, and had blind 90 degree turns. But there were some views of Fanno Creek.

Once I left the trail behind and got on roads I moved more quickly.  I had begun my pedal commute at 8:15 AM, and hoped to arrive at our starting location by 9:30 AM.  I figured that an hour and a quarter to travel 17 miles was reasonable on my fixed gear bike. The low clouds/high fog started doing the heavy mist thing about 5 miles out from our starting location.  After about 20 minutes it was just getting to the point that I was wishing I had clipped on my rear fender, when it stopped.

Despite the slow start, I did indeed make it to the start just before 9:30 AM, plenty of time to futz around before the 10 AM roll out.

The ride leaders in the group don't like to share the route before the ride.  They claim it helps keep the group together.  The plan was to regroup at turns and tops of hills.  Nobody would be dropped.  One leader led us, the other acted as sweep. I found out that today's route would bring us up Pumpkin Ridge Rd. a 300 ft in 1.4 mile climb.  That would be a workout on the fixed gear bike, but not impossible.  The descent off the backside would be harder.

As we got to the base of the climb our ride leader sent the rest of us on up the hill, telling us to stop at  our left turn onto Old Pumpkin Ridge Rd. He was going to wait for the slower riders to catch up.

Most of the group passed me on the climb. As I got to the turn, I saw the two riders ahead of me keep on going straight ahead.  I called out, but the evidently didn't hear me.  A couple of riders rode up and stopped as well.  Our ride leader came up and asked where the others were, we told him they missed the turn.  He decided to try to chase them down.  They had a 5-7 minute head start.

Our group of "waitees" waited for another 20 minutes or so.  The leader had not yet returned, the sweep had not yet arrived with her entourage. One of our group rode back to see if they had a mechanical issue.  He arrived back saying he rode back a long distance and did not see them.  We finally decided that the sweep must have decided to not ride the hill and taken her group on an alternate flatter route.

One of our party had made the assumption that if a ride is advertised at a 15 mph pace, that a 30 mile ride would be finished up in around 2 hours. (I've always been a strong proponent of "clock time" pace reckoning vs "riding time")  She was getting into time issues.  It was 11:30 AM, she had a 12:30 PM appointment.  None of us knew the route, though I knew the way. She is a grad student from Montana and not real familiar with our rural roads. I finally convinced her that if she was going to make her appointment we needed to roll.  Most of the rest of the group was going to continue to wait. Hilary and I started in on a direct route back to her vehicle.  After a few miles down the hill we found another of our group standing at a stop sign at a T intersection, unsure which way to turn. We told him that we were turning left and heading directly back to the cars.  I'm unsure what he planned, he was still standing there as we pedaled away.

As far as group rides go, this was a disaster.  Our group of 13 had splintered into at least 5 groups.  Some knew where to go, some not. Our leader was chasing down some off the front folks, our sweeper was sweeping some other route.

                             

I was concerned that Hilary would be in a big hurry and I'd be holding her up on my fixed gear.  As it ended up, there was a bit of headwind and I ended up slowing for her a bit.

We arrived back at the cars at 12:18.  I'm not sure how far she had to drive, but I know she was probably going to a bit late.  She was still all smiles though.

Once she was back at her car, I continued on my way home.  I had no clue if the plan for a post ride bite was still on, or how many might be there, or when.

I pretty much retraced my route.  I had no time constraints so took my time.

This morning when I pedaled out I thought I'd probably end up with about 65 miles. 35 of commute, and the advertised "about 30 mile" event ride.  Our direct route back cut about 5 miles off the 30 mile route. I ended up with 60 miles

It barely reached 60 degrees today, but was still a good ride, even after the snafus.

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ........60................0...................0.......................0...........60
Jan...............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......284................0..................0........................0..........284
YTD...... 685...............0...................0.......................0...........685