Chapter 9

In the two weeks leading up to the STP, we had started to ease off a little on our training. We were pretty close to being at the peak in terms of readiness, so it only made sense to ease off a little so that we didn’t go over. Trying to keep training interesting during those weeks took an awful lot of creativity.

Since I knew that the ladies loved a challenge, and in particular challenges that involved rewards, I added a series of simple challenge events to each Wednesday evening training ride. For the first week, we worked on riding skills. This involved finding a flat grassy field and working on such skills as balance and turning. I was trying to get them to understand a little known, and less understood skill called ‘counter steering’. In counter steering, the goal is to be able to fly downhill without killing yourself. Most riders would approach a descent in one of two ways, both of which had their downfalls.

Method one is the ‘let fly and hope’ method: In this method, the rider would simply let it rip downhill and just hoped that they didn’t hit any tight turns or sudden situations they couldn’t handle. As long as the descent was gentle and not too winding, you were golden. This method requires an awful lot of faith and hope. Not something you really want to bet your life, or skin on!

The second method was what we called the Sunday driver, or ‘que-tip’ method: You’ve all watched a little old lady in a great big car drive, right? We called them ‘que-tips’ because usually all you could see from behind them was their cloud of white hair, which made it look as if a giant que-tip was driving the land barge. Anyway, they would slowly work their way through traffic, on the theory that if they didn’t make any sudden moves, or hear any loud noises when they merged, then they were okay. The riding equivalent of this is to slow way down on a curve in order to crab around it. The problem with this approach is that when you apply the brakes, your bike would naturally stand more upright, which actually makes it harder to corner, not easier.

When you counter steer, you actually push the handle bar the opposite way you want the bike to physically go. When you want to curve left, you force the handle bar slightly to the right, and the twin effects of gravity and centrifugal force actually cause you to duck under your original line and tighten your turn. The problem is that it feels all wrong, and your mind starts to have a very serious conversation with you about how crazy you are. And it is almost impossible to teach without trying it for yourself. The other problem is that you cannot apply brakes while in the counter steer or your bike will try to stand straight up and the result is a very bad thing!

I started out teaching the skill by setting out single water bottles on the grass. I then had each lady try to ride by and pick them up, one at a time. This required them to ride slowly enough not to over shoot, but quickly enough to hold their balance. The whole idea was to get them to figure out where their balance points were on their bikes for cornering, and more importantly, what happened when they shifted their weight around in the saddle.

After a great deal of laughing as each rider fell over at least once, they started to get a feel for the effect of weight shifts while riding and turning. No one was hurt, and in general, they seemed to get the hang of that part of the training. Now came the hard part: Teaching them to counter steer and find just the right amount of pressure to exert on the handlebars without pushing themselves over the top. I started them out with just a small amount of pressure. I had each lady sit on their frame while I held them up, then I had them push against the pressure of my hand on the handlebar until I let go so that they would get a feel for how much it takes to make counter steering work, and how much is too much. It really doesn’t take all that much pressure to exact a great deal of change in your line.

We tried it a few times in the grass, and then we moved on to the road. At each turn, I had them try to counter steer, and they soon figured out that too much pressure was not a good idea. We didn’t have any big accidents, but several near misses resulted as they learned how much was too much. After that, we rode to the top of a nice easy hill and then descended to the bottom, trying to counter steer through each curve. I told them if they felt they had too much speed going into the corner to brake as they were entering the corner as hard as they needed to spill the extra speed, but not to brake at all once they were in the curve, unless they felt it totally going out of control. At this point, I told them to start seeking a soft spot to crash!

Finally, I took them the back way behind ‘the wall’ and had them descend that hill as it was both curvy and had a couple of tight turns that they could try their skills on. At the bottom of the hill we grouped up, and I told them that the reason I was teaching this now was that we would use it a little on the STP, but a lot more on the descents for the ‘Crashcade’. I did NOT want to scrape any of them off the road on a mountain descent, and their mood turned a little sober at that thought.

For the final week of training leading up to the STP, we had what I called a ‘spin n’ grin’ ride. We rode at a very gentle pace and chatted about all sorts of goofy things along the way. We rode all over the countryside at a nice leisurely pace until we reached the turn around point. I stopped everyone and then sprung my plans on them.

“Okay, here’s the deal on the ride home. We are going to have little mini races all the way back to the barn. The winner of each mini race gets to pick the next finish point along the route for the next race. The rider with the most wins to their credit at the end of the ride gets to choose their own prize, if you know what I mean.” I said with a smile. Everyone seemed to perk up at this thought, which I had hoped would happen. “Okay, the rules are as follows: First, everyone is involved, and no one gets any time bonuses or running starts. This is flat out, the fastest rider wins, including me. Second, there can only be one winner, so if two or more people are tied at the end we’ll have a run-off race at the park to declare the ultimate winner; the races are winner takes all, so no points for finishing second. Any questions?”

Jane cleared her throat and said, “Okay, I think I have it, but let me make sure I have all of it?” I nodded for her to go ahead. “There is only a winner in each heat, and the winner at the end gets to take home whomever they decide? Is the ‘prize’ the owners’ to do with as he or she pleases, kind of like the hill climb contest I heard about?”

“Yes and yes!” I said, and there was general agreement from all the other ladies. “Okay, since Melody won that last challenge, she gets to pick the finish point for the first heat.”

“Is there any rule about how long to make the heat?” Melody asked.

“Well, I don’t see any reason apart from a race from here to the park, which is what, about twenty miles away, might make folks a little crabby! How about we limit each heat to no more than five miles? Any objections to that?” I said, and there was another chorus of nods. “Okay, Melody from here to where, under five miles that is?”

“Okay, from here to the next road crossing, at the mall. That’s less than five miles, I think?” Melody said as she started to mount up.

“Everybody ready?” I asked as they lined up across the road. “Then on your mark, get set, go!”

Now only Jane and I had any real experience at cycle racing, both of us having been on racing teams, though Melody had joined the cycling team at her school, she had very little actual experience with racing. The rest of the ladies had none, and the entire herd started charging off at a pace I knew most of them couldn’t sustain. About a mile in we were starting to spread out along the road, Meredith, Anne, and Lizzie currently held the lead, with Melody, Jane and me in the middle and Amanda and Melinda pulling up the rear. Everyone was still in contact, meaning they could still see the rider in front of them and if they put in extra effort could probably catch that rider.