On The Road
by: Bill Oetinger 7/1/2007
School Daze
Let's begin with a little story...
I was standing over my bike on the summit of a small hill near here--the top
of Franz Valley School Road, if you know your local geography--taking a little
break before descending to Calistoga. Coming up the hill toward me, from the
Calistoga direction, was a young woman on a bike. She chugged purposefully up
the hill, then stopped next to me on the summit.
She was a cute kid. Probably 18 years old. (I'm old enough that I can refer
to an 18-year-old as "a cute kid." She was fully tricked out with
new gear: brand new bike, new clothes, from helmet to shoes. Everything fresh
off the showroom floor. It seemed obvious to me that she was new to the world
of cycling...had taken the plunge and bought all the right stuff. Or perhaps
someone had bought it all for her.
She took a peep over the crest of the hill at her road ahead and asked me, "How
steep is this downhill?" I could see that she was worried about it, frightened
even, so I tried to reassure her. "Not too bad: it's about half a mile
long and you can see most of it from here...just a straight shot down the hill
at about 5%; then a gentle left-hand bend and another gentle right-hander, and
then it starts uphill again. Not a big deal at all."
The more I looked at her, the more I realized how scared she was, how utterly
lacking in confidence and in the basic wherewithal to tackle this very simple
descent. It was like watching a kayaker trying to muster up the gumption to launch
off into a set of Class V meatgrinder rapids. Had it not been for the fact that
I was part of a larger club ride heading in the other direction, I would have
offered to ride down the hill with her, just to show her it could be done. But
I had to get going and catch up to my cronies, so I took off. I figured she would
eventually click in and tiptoe down the hill at a very cautious pace.
But as I was rolling away, I heard a different sort of click-clack sound, and
I looked back to see her starting to walk down the hill! I have to tell
you: that was one of the saddest sights I've ever seen in the world of cycling.
That poor kid was so terrified of an itty bitty descent, so unsure of her skills,
that she was going to plod, one cleat-clinking step at a time, all the way to
the bottom.
This has to be an extreme case of hill-o-phobia, but I thought of that timid
teen recently while participating in a group gab-fest on a multi-day tour. After
dinner in our camp, one of the participants asked a question of the group (two
questions actually): "What do you think about when you're climbing
and what do you think about when you're descending?" Now, a little
background: this tour had been advertised as a relatively easy proposition. Not
too challenging. (It didn't turn out that way...was in fact quite hilly
and at times bordered on being brutal.) But the folks who had signed up for it
did so with the notion of it being a moderate package, and as such, the general
cycling demographic in the group was also fairly moderate. Not too many hammerheads
and not, overall, an advanced level of skills or cycling sophistication.
I mention this because it was reflected in the answers to those questions. Many
who responded said they thought about how miserable they were on the climbs and
how much they were suffering, and their descriptions of what they thought about
on the descents were couched in terms of fear and uncertainty...of a sense of
impending peril and trauma.
I have been thinking about that poor girl and about the mindsets of those more-or-less
moderate riders on the tour, and what I've been thinking is that many of
our cycling brothers and sisters out there are riding around with somewhat marginal
cycling skills. Hand in hand with that lack of competence goes a lack of confidence.
Anyone who has participated in mass, pay-to-ride centuries can bear witness to
this widespread lack of cycling chops. Many riders appear to have only the vaguest
understanding of paceline or pack-riding dynamics; their descending skills and
general bike handling abilities are at best tentative. Overall, they just seem
clueless.
(My own skills and bike smarts are a long way from the pro peloton. It would
be ludicrous to set myself up as a paragon of pedaling perfection. But I have
been doing this for a long time...cycling, first of all, but also thinking about
cycling and being an observer of the cycling scene, for whatever that's
worth. I don't expect you to buy into my argument because I have such a
fancy resumé, but rather because your own observations agree with mine...that
you look around out there on the road and see the same problems I'm describing
here.)
I have noted in other essays on cycling that it's a sport one can get into
without needing to be an expert; that one can enjoy it without having all those
cutting-edge skills and the knowledge that goes with them. I still hold this
to be true, but I might wish to qualify that premise a bit. While the average
rider doesn't need the skill sets of a pro to get along, there are still
dozens of fundamental techniques one ought to master to ride comfortably and
with confidence.
And that brings me to the main point of this screed: where can a novice rider
learn these techniques? Where can a novice rider go to tap into the accumulated
wisdom of more advanced, more sophisticated riders? The first, most obvious answer
is a cycling club; one with an active membership and a busy schedule of club
rides. Good clubs will offer rides especially for beginners, and once those beginners
matriculate to longer, more ambitious rides in the club, they will have many
opportunities to learn by watching those around them.
All well and good, as far as it goes. Learning from the examples of one's
more experienced peers is great, but it mostly happens in a wordless, unstructured
scrum of here-and-now action. That's both the good news and the bad news.
It's good because nothing beats real-world, in-the-moment experience as
a teacher. It's bad because it's not always easy to pick up the details
of whatever is being taught. You can see that the guy ahead of you can go faster
on a twisting mountain descent than you ever thought possible, but you can't
see exactly how or why he can do it...how he's shifting his weight and manipulating
the bike; how he's reading the road (the paving, the camber, the apex).
You might see that two riders touched wheels or bar ends in a pack and didn't
crash, but you can't exactly understand how they pulled it off.
Sometimes, it would be nice to spend a day with real mentors, receiving specific
instructions in skills and techniques; having things explained in slow-motion
detail, with time for questions and answers, for skill-building drills...and
above all, in a setting where it's okay to admit you don't know everything,
and where the only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask.
The League of American Bicyclists offers a fairly regular schedule of street
skills sessions taught by certified instructors. I've never taken one, but
I have a pretty good idea of what they cover and how they work, having hung out
with some of those LAB instructors and having attended lectures and videos on
the subject. These tend to focus on the John Forrester "Effective Cycling" end
of the spectrum. That is, how to ride and survive in the real, everyday world
of traffic.
This again is all well and good. Learning how to cope with traffic and be in
the mix is huge. But it still doesn't address the very simple and essential
business of how to ride a bike skillfully and with confidence. Before we learn
about street skills and riding in traffic, we need to master the bike itself.
Such skills clinics do exist, but in my experience, they are few and far between
and can be hard to find. They also usually cost money. No reason to expect they
should be free. The instructors ought to be compensated for their time and for
the value of their skills and knowledge. But, rightly or wrongly, the tuition
does act as a disincentive for many potential students.
Years ago--1993--I attended such a clinic. It was put on in Santa Rosa by the
United States Cycling Federation, in conjunction with Bicycling magazine.
Tuition was $60 for a weekend-long session. Saturday was spent in the classroom
and Sunday was spent on the road. I know it rained all day Saturday, so they
may have adjusted the format to work around that rain: more time in class. But
the lectures were not a waste of time at all. Several very experienced racers--George
Mount and Dave Walters, and also Bicycling Editor Geoff Drake--covered
a wide range of topics, from pack riding to bike fit. It's my belief you
can't be a complete cyclist with just the on-the-bike skills. You also need
to understand and appreciate the totality of bike culture and heritage. It's
a total immersion kind of thing.
The day spent in on-the-bike mentoring was wonderful. I was by no means a newbie
when I took this clinic. I'd been riding a road bike for 25 years at that
point. But I still learned new things every minute of the day, and in addition
to the specific skills, I came away with an enhanced appreciation for what is
possible on the bike. Call it confidence or bike smarts. Many of the skill drills
were aimed at making one a better racer, but cranking out whiz kids for the peloton
was not the primary goal of the clinic. The goal was to make us better, more
complete riders, with an expanded comfort zone based on an expanded repertoire
of useful skills. The bike is a tool, and we graduated from this little school
as more adept tool users.
Now then...looking around at all the clueless, under-trained riders I see out
there, I wonder why clinics like this are not available in every town on every
weekend and at a price point that would not discourage the participation of those
who need the instruction most. In-car training is required for new drivers. I
think special training is also required for motorcycles, although I'm not
sure about the specifics of that. Certainly high-speed, performance schools are
readily available for both cars and motos...at a price, to be sure, but at least
they're there if you want them. I can't say the same for cycling.
It's almost as if we're all buying into that old baloney that bikes
are just toys for children and not to be taken seriously as sometimes high-speed,
performance-oriented vehicles that require skillful, informed, confident users
at the controls. No experienced rider would accept that myth about bikes-as-toys,
but our approach to acquiring the skills for operating these serious machines
seems haphazard and careless.
No, I don't have some brilliant proposal for rectifying this problem. I'm
just pointing it out and suggesting that each of us individually and all of us
collectively should be paying at least a little attention to the issue...looking
for ways to promote more clinics and more participation in whatever clinics are
on offer. Even if you think you know it all about cycling, you might still learn
something from such a class, as I did. And if you know others who are just dipping
a toe into the waters of cycling, you might encourage them to take part in such
a class.
With that in mind, I will pass along an e-mail promo I received recently. It's
for just the sort of skills clinic I am talking about. Unfortunately, this clinic
was held in June, a week before the writing of this column. But if these folks
held one clinic, and if the demand is there, they will probably schedule more
of them. Or perhaps they can point you to another class in your area.
My passing along this promo does not constitute an endorsement of this clinic.
I don't know anything about the class or its instructors. But the promo
is saying all the right things, so it appears worthy of our attention...
Don't have drafting, pulling and pacelines nailed yet? Want to learn how
to avoid getting dropped on climbs? Want to feel safer and have more fun on group
rides? Then sign up for the group riding skills clinic given by:
Marvin Zauderer, USA Cycling Level 2 Coach and Masters Road Racer; Dusty Roady,
ZGirl Women's Cycling Team Manager and USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach; Tim
McCracken, Marin Cyclists President and Masters Road, MTB & CycloCross Racer;
and Katie Kelly, Road Racer & Marin Cyclists Member.
Includes a 40-mile ride from Fairfax and complimentary goodies at the Bovine
Bakery in Pt. Reyes Station. Free to Marin Cyclists members, $30 for non-members
(Marin Cyclists membership: $40, www.marincyclists.com)
To sign up, please email marvinz@pobox.com
First 24 e-mails will fill the clinic.
(All profits donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation)
http://www.wholeathlete.com/psychology.htm
http://www.wholeathlete.com/coach_marvin.htm
Comments on past clinics:
"Pacelining was great." "Great instruction, supervision, and coaching." "Friendly
instructors." "All the tips were very helpful." "Covered
a lot in a short time." "Well thought out." "Clear and concise
instruction." "The instructors were very patient."
Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net