These include:
- Building a riders confidence through exposure to varied terrain, traffic and climatic conditions.
- Increased bike handling skills through experience and constant skill refinement.
- Develops awareness of how to stay safe and ride defensively on public roads.
- How to dose rider effort when training and racing in wind, heat and rain.
The importance of
staying safe when training this way brings us to cycling etiquette and pack
riding.
To ride safely in a
bunch requires a number of important factors including – matched rider
experience and ability within a bunch, constant rider communication through
clear and universally understood signals and riders being consistent and
predictable with their riding behaviour.
If these rules are not
followed, riders can put themselves and others in the bunch at risk of injury. Here are some basic calls that everyone should know.
Riders back or riders
When you are
approaching riders let them know you are passing by calling ‘riders’ in advance
of the pass. If you are at the rear of the bunch and you are calling that
riders are passing the bunch then you call ‘riders back.’
Car up or car back
When
you are approaching a parked car and you are going to deviate right and change
direction to pass, call ‘car up’ and motion with your left hand coming behind
your back. If you are at the rear of the bunch and a car is approaching in your
lane, call ‘car back.’
Pot holes and debris (Glass)
If you are approaching
a pot hole, the lead rider points out the hole by possibly calling ‘hole’ and
signalling with a pointed left or right depending on which side they are
passing. For glass, definitely yell out ‘glass and point it out on the left or
right
Stopping for lights
Ideally,
in this instance think of the bunch as one vehicle. The leaders will decide if the bunch stops at
the light or goes through. As soon as
the light turns Amber, the leaders will call out loudly “STOPPING” or “LIGHTS”
if they are bringing the group to a halt.
If they decide there is not enough space to stop the group safely, they
will call out “ROLLING” and the whole group goes through.
A
few very important considerations:
- The call the leaders make applies to the whole group. If they call STOPPING and someone three wheels back calls ROLLING you can imagine what could happen. Likewise, if they call ROLLING but someone in the middle of the group makes a unilateral decision to stop, everyone behind doing the right thing will crash into the back of them. The call BY the leaders is all that matters.
- The leaders might make a call that doesn’t make sense to you, but they can see more than you can, so do what they say. The only thing you can do wrong as a leader is make no call. If you’re in a bunch and you’re not happy with the leadership of it you should always pull out.
- If you deem it unsafe to stop based on the proximity to the orange lights and the speed of the bunch, then call out ‘rolling’, and accelerate reasonably through the lights. If it’s a sizable bunch, then riders down the line must eventually decide to stop the bunch once it has been orange for a time or becomes red and is dangerous to proceed. The riders that went through should wait or soft pedal on the other side of the lights to allow the rest of the bunch to catch up, depending on the ride type.
When you need to call ‘Single’ file
When the road narrows
or there is an approaching obstruction, the lead rider sometimes must call
single file. This requires the bunch to form a single line to maintain safety
due to the circumstance. This is done by the lead rider raising one arm above
their head and calling ‘Single’. Normally the left hand rider maintains the
lead and pace, and the rider on the right will slow and fall in behind. This is
mirrored down the line
For more info on Fluid Movements Riding etiquette, go to http://www.fluidmovements.com/articlesdetails.php?nid=22&action=vew
Coach Foz
