11 April 2009.

Each day of the NEBC's Racing clinic has a title. The title doesn't give away what you are going to be doing that day, merely one of the activities you can look forward to. Day 1, for example, was called "The Paceline."

Day 2 was called "Incidental Contact."

As one would imagine, this involves performing these exercises while riding extremely close to each other. Close enough to, for example, have your elbow purposely hit the rider next to you.



Words cannot describe how truly difficult this is. Over the years, you establish an idea of how close you can get to other cyclists. Trying, instead, to get close enough to receive an elbow or intentionally rub tires is incredibly difficult.



After only an hour or so of these exercises, none of the riders in our group had any problems getting REALLY close to each other. A fact which dovetailed well with the next lesson using the rotating double paceline to chase down solo break-aways.



Our group would use the paceline to chase down instructors as they soloed off the front. What no one expected was the instructors to behave like a team - meaning each time we reeled one instructor in, another tore off.



The group's dynamics were incredibly fun to watch. We buried the first soloist, organizing our chase quickly - he barely got 150 feet away before we started to close. The group was slower to react when the second instructor took off (shortly after the 1st rabbit was caught), but in time he was reeled in as well.



The third instructor was vicious. He positioned himself to be the last rider taking a pull when we caught the 2nd rabbit. He moved aside like normal, but instead of easing back he hammered it.



I saw this from two riders back and I had to decide if I was going to break formation and chase him down or stick to the exercise. I knew if I jumped then I could get on his wheel and I could feel the group's dynamics. We had been beaten by these repeated attacks and didn't have the gas or motivation to immediately chase another one down. In other words, this attack was going to work.



Ultimately, I decided not to give chase and work with the group. The point, after all, wasn't to win it was to learn. (Ever the competitor, I'm still a little sore about that choice...)



Unfortunately, my instinctual assessment of the group was right. It took us far longer to organize against this attack, long enough that we were 200 or so feet back when he pulled off at the parking lot. His attack had succeeded.