Saturday, February 23, 2013
La Vuelta Puerto Rico
This is my story of La Vuelta Puerto Rico on January 25, 26
and 27, 2013.
La Vuelta Puerto Rico is a three-day, 375-mile
circumnavigation of Puerto Rico done in pelotons. The purpose of the peloton riding is, I
believe, two-fold: 1) to manage the riders and keep everyone on schedule and 2)
to prevent accidents with vehicles. The
organizers may want to dispute reason #2 but I have ridden in Puerto Rico
enough to know that many drivers are not used to encountering bicycles and my
theory is that pushing a bunch of lone bicyclists out on these roads will
result in some not returning. You can
encounter busses and dump trucks in the most unlikely of places going at high
rates of speed and bad accidents with vehicles are likely without the peloton
to protect you.
There is lots of great information and photos of this and
past La Vueltas at their web site at http://vueltapr.com/.
Stoker Kim and I arrived in San Juan on Tuesday, January 22
so I had two full days to assemble my bike and get some familiarity with riding
in the nearly perfect January weather in Puerto Rico. I was riding a single bike so Stoker Kim was
a tourist/van driver for this event. Three
other riders from my area, Larry Black, Mark Haynes and Dan Levine, came the
following day. We all used Wednesday to
assemble bikes and tour Old San Juan on foot and then took quick 40-miler warm-up
ride from OSJ to Loiza and back on Thursday.
This is one of my favorite rides from OSJ and I enjoyed sharing it.
Dan, Larry and Mark in a road-side restaurant in Loiza.
La Vuelta started at 6 a.m. on Friday, January 25. The organizers have a smart plan for getting
things started. All 425 riders left OSJ
at 6 a.m., rode at a leisurely pace to the first rest stop and then split up into
three groups based on desired riding speed.
This worked very well as getting out of OSJ can be a bit tricky and
getting 425 riders out of OSJ can be a disaster. There were no problems leaving at such an
early hour and everyone safely arrived at the first rest stop in Loiza. After that the A (25 – 30 mph for a 21 mph
average), B (20 – 25 mph for an 18 mph average) and C (18 – 20 mph for a 15 mph
average) groups departed on their own. I
was in B for the first 150-mile day to Ponce.
The start at 6 a.m.
Site of the day's first rest stop.
The Good
The ride organization was fantastic. This thing must be like organizing a moving
carnival. There are three different
groups of riders all wanting water, energy drinks, ice, toilet facilities, bike
repair and shade at rest stops plus breakfast and lunch. Amazingly all of this stuff was right there
when we were ready for it.
Breakfast on Day 1 at El Conquistador Hotel.
Leaving Breakfast.
A rest stop on Day 1.
And these three trains had to stay on schedule. The towns we traveled through were totally
disrupted by our presence and many of them loved it, pulling out all the stops
to welcome us. But they didn’t want
people straggling through all day long.
A group like us can easily wear out our welcome, but we were always able
to get in and out of a town on time.
This was because of the main organizer, William. He was a constant presence shouting into a
bull-horn until he lost his voice on the last day. At first I was thinking, “Oy. I have to listen to this for three
days?” But it became apparent that someone
needed to be shouting into that bullhorn if we were going to get to our hotel
on time and be able to get some dinner and rest before starting again the next
day. He did a great job.
Entering Cabo Rojo
Cabo Rojo had a small festival in our honor. Great fun.
Cabo Rojo
Larry seemed to enjoy whatever that is he's drinking.
So did our police escorts.
We had a team of motorcycle policemen with each peloton. One would be up front and one at the rear
with the others leap-frogging ahead to stop traffic at intersections so we
could roll right through. This was an
amazing effort by a pretty large group of police for three days. I haven’t seen anything else comparable to it
outside of a pro race.
A rest stop at a lighthouse.
And La Vuelta Puerto Rico was kind of like a pro race
without the big money contracts and performance enhancing drugs. At La Vuelta you get to ride in a real
peloton, not just the usual five-man paceline.
There are experienced local group leaders setting the pace at the front
all the time. There are usually three at the front and others resting in the
peloton who move up periodically to take charge and allow the others to
rest. There were probably ten or so
group leaders in each peloton doing this work.
A mechanic was at every rest stop.
Oh, and you have to ride in the peloton. Lone riders aren’t allowed so you either stay
with your group or go home. You can drop
back from A to B or from B to C. But if
you can’t stay with the Cs you get to ride to the hotel in the sweep van and
then become a tourist.
The Bad
I didn’t like riding with Group B. Group A consisted mostly of very experienced
road racers or former road racers looking for a good winter training ride. I didn’t think the speeds they maintained
were possible for me. So I chose B. But the B group, although all very good
riders and great people, had less experience at peloton riding and were a bit erratic.
For example, after the first rest stop we were clipping
along at 25-mph for a sustained period.
I can handle that speed in a peloton where the group sucks you along and
you use a lot less energy (about 30% less) than if you were riding solo. After a while we hit a straight piece of road
and I was able to see the entire peloton in front of me. What I saw was that I was in a second group
that had fallen behind the lead group.
There was a gap of a few hundred yards between the two and I didn’t want
to get left behind by the group leaders who were setting the pace and expecting
everyone to keep up.
So I had to catch the lead group. That meant speeding up to work my way to the
front of the back group and then sprinting to bridge the gap to the leaders. When I left the back group I had about five
other riders with me who were doing the same and we worked together to catch
the leaders and then settled in for as much of a rest as you can get going
25-mph on a bike.
Riding in the peloton.
This was fun because that is how the pros react when they
have a large break-away that needs to be caught and I got to play faux-pro and
felt great about it. The first time. After that it got old quickly because these
gaps developed constantly. Every time we
would hit a difficult section or a hill the peloton would break apart and if
you weren’t in the front group you had to play “catch the leaders” again and this
wore me out. I tried to avoid this
problem by staying in the front but that was where everyone wanted to be to
prevent getting caught in a back group and having to work to catch-on
again. So it became very competitive to
stay in the front and riders kept passing me to get to the front even though
there was no room for them to fit in.
You either had to let them in or aggressively protect your space and I
decided that getting aggressive wasn’t what this was all about. I constantly kept getting pushed back,
disappointedly seeing the gap and then having to bridge the gap. It was a workout and I was completely knackered
by lunch time.
And, this created other problems. Some B riders became so tired from either
biting off more speed than they could manage to maintain or from playing
“bridge the gap” all day that they eventually lost concentration and
crashed. The riders in a peloton are
close for maximum drafting effect and there isn’t a lot of room for error.
The first crash occurred shortly after sunrise on the first
day. We were on a slight down-hill at
rapid speed (I couldn’t look at my speedometer all day out of fear of crashing
if I took my eyes off the road and the wheel in front of me) when two riders
touched wheels and went down right in front of me. The following happened in less than one
second: hit the brakes, lock up rear wheel, rear-end slides to the left, look
over right shoulder, no one there, release breaks, stop skid and steer to the
right, miss the tumbling bike and rider by inches. After that several riders tapped me on the
shoulder to congratulate me on my outstanding bike handling skills but I had to
be honest with them. It was absolute
dumb luck. The rear wheel lock-up and
skid to the left just happened and it positioned my bike to be pointing in a
good direction to ride sufficiently away.
And the crashed riders and bikes were still tumbling down the road at
speed giving me enough time to do something before I caught up with them. I still don’t know why I didn’t end up in
that pile of sliding carbon fiber, flesh and bones.
I understand this injured rider was an A grouper who went on an off-road excursion.
But this really shook me up a bit as the crash was violent
and it was followed by many others and numerous more close calls. Everyone was hyper-worried about potholes and
there was good reason for that because some of them would swallow your wheel
and spit out a pretzel. But pointing at
the ground and shouting “Hoyo!” doesn’t help much if you can’t swerve to avoid
the obstacle. Abrupt swerving was
generally a bad idea as contact with a neighbor or follower was possible.
Before lunch we had the wheel-touch and crash described
above, a woman who went down on a slick manhole cover in a turn (elbow) and a
really bad contact crash when someone swerved to avoid a water puddle in the
road and undercut the rider next to him (broken leg). This last one was really bad as those of us
in the rear of the pack (me again) saw the injured person attempt to get up on
a leg that had one too many joints in it.
Labeling it as ugly is an understatement and I hope this person has
healed.
This couple from San Francisco did La Vuelta on a tandem. Quite an accomplishment.
Something I found a bit shocking was riding past these
crashes. I understand that there is no
benefit to us stopping to stare down at the fallen and that the motorcycle
policeman at the back will immediately radio for an ambulance and
paramedics. I also understand that the
train had to keep moving if it was going to remain on schedule. I understand all of that, but it was still
unsettling to ride past fellow bicyclists crashed on the road as they are still
trying to figure out what just happened to them and take stock of their
injuries.
At lunch on the first day I made up my mind that I was going
to finish the day with the Bs and then drop back to ride with the Cs
tomorrow. It wasn’t the pace of the Bs
that bothered me but all of the rest: the competition to stay at the front and
the consequences of constantly bridging the gap if you didn’t, the serious
crashes and continuing to ride on.
Town square in Mayaguez, our overnight stop on Day 2.
Mi tio, Felix Lopez, met us for dinner in Mayaguez. Here is Felix with Stoker Kim, Linda and Larry Black.
The following day the Cs were much more leisurely. But there were problems here also. Many original Bs had the same idea as I and
the ranks of the Cs swelled throughout Day 1.
At the start of Day 2 the Cs were even more numerous and they continued
to grow in number throughout the event as As moved to B and Bs moved to C.
The crashes I observed in the C group were all low-speed
affairs. The size of the C group caused
some of the problems. A peloton isn’t a
fixed solid object. It is almost liquid
and tends to flow as riders bunch up when the leaders slow and spread out as
the leaders accelerate. The individual
riders also constantly move around in the group when they see a better place to
be. In a very large group peloton this
elasticity is exaggerated. The middle to
rear portion is constantly slowing down or speeding up racing to catch the rest
as the leaders are far ahead and the elastic band snaps back. And a hill would cause traffic jams that
sometimes required stopping if someone faltered and stopped causing the riders
behind them to stop as the front of the pack moved along down the road. This was where the low-speed crashes would
happen as riders bunched up and made contact.
But the speeds were so slow at these times that I never saw an injury in
the Cs.
But it was impossible to develop a rhythm in the C
group. The best long rides have a rhythm
that requires neither extremely slow nor all-out sprint riding. The best thing is to just motor along at the
best pace taking advantage of tail winds and down-hills and pushing against
up-hills and headwinds while maintaining a relatively constant effort. This wasn’t possible with the Cs because of
the constant pace changes experienced inside the pack for the reasons described
above. It became a very busy ride always
slowing and then accelerating and this decreased the enjoyment.
This shows the big gaps that populated the C group peloton.
The C Group. Lots of space, but no rhythm.
So neither the B or C groups were perfect for me. I propose next year that we have a “Group
Jim” where I will ride just behind the ride leaders and they will follow my
direction about whether to increase or decrease the pace. Yes, I think that is what I shall suggest to
the ride organizers.
The Ugly
Some things just got on my nerves, including:
·
Flying water bottles: If you are going to come all this way and
invest this much money in a bike ride please ensure that your water bottle
cages are adequate to hold your bottles when riding over bumps in the
road. The B Group seemed to constantly have
water bottles flying about the peloton.
This is a bigger problem that you may think. Water, as a liquid, is not compressible. Hitting a full water bottle at 25-mph is
similar to hitting a 4-in. log lying in the road. I personally hit two on Day 1 and saw many
other ejected water bottles cause near accidents. It is less than considerate to have your
water bottles inadequately secured on such a ride.
·
These guys:
·
Peloton bosses: Some people have to inflate their status by
shouting orders to other riders. One
classic example is the group of riders who would shout, “Hold your line” every
time we entered a turn. When riding in a
peloton the riders must “hold their line” in turns so as not to run into their
neighbors. This is easy to
visualize. If a group of riders is going
around a turn five-abreast and the person on the outside of the turn doesn’t
“hold his line” and decides to cut down to the turn apex he will run into other
four riders that are between him and the turn apex. Easy.
Everyone understands that. You
“hold your line” by maintaining your position in the radius of the turn so you
don’t run into the side of the riders next to you. But, my point is that everyone, or at least a
bicycle rider experienced enough to attempt La Vuelta Puerto Rico, already knows
that. And, in the off chance that they
don’t, it will become obvious in the first turn. There comes a time when constantly yelling
“Hold your line” in every turn for three days becomes bothersome. Especially since the only reason to yell
these orders is to make yourself appear to be a leader and smarter than the
rest of us lugs who haven’t yet figured out that we need to “hold our
line”. For me, that time came at 9:21
a.m. on the morning of Day 1. After that
this constant shouting and bloviating by a few riders was tedious advancing to irritating.
Conclusion
I hope the “bad” and “ugly” parts of this blog don’t leave
the impression that La Vuelta Puerto Rico wasn’t a great event. All events have “bad” and “ugly” parts. Such is life.
And I tend to write more about the things that prevent an event from
being perfect than the parts that are.
Overall I had a great time in one of my favorite places. La Vuelta Puerto Rico was a big challenge
that was successfully completed and I am very happy about that. And it was very well run and managed. The organizers, volunteers and police deserve
a lot of credit for supporting this event that must be a major logistical
challenge and I thank them for their hard work.
Thanks for reading.
