Velo City Cycles

Lots of Ride News that can’t wait until the next edition of the Quick Release.

Please read on if you’re interested and forgive our trespassing of your Inbox if you’re not! (We’ll not make a habit of it.)

The Tuesday Night Ride starts this Tuesday (April 15)! This is our biggest ride of the week and the one that’s caused us the most off-season stress, frankly. The ride showed a tendency to get “out of hand” towards the end of last season and we really wanna try and avoid that this summer. There will be two “official” groups, both led by real live Velo-Citizens. The “Green” group will maintain an average speed of 17-18 mph and do a loop of 20-23 miles. (Distances for both groups will increase slightly as the season goes along and the available daylight increases). There will be both a “Lead” and a “Sweep” rider with this group and they will make sure that no one gets lost or dropped. If the group needs to split, one Velo-Citizen will go with each “sub” group. The “Red” group will travel at whatever speed neccessary to keep the group together - probably around 13-14 mph and the distance will start out at 17-18 miles. There will be one Velo-Citizen leading this group. (Note: Despite the fact that all Velo-Citizens will be willing, able and equipped to deal with flats and minor mechanicals, there’s something to be said for self-dependence, don’tcha think?) Like all Velo City Rides, these rides will follow traffic laws and strive to represent the cycling community well.

Now, we know that there are many of you for whom neither of these groups seem ideal. If you want to ride faster and/or harder than the Green group, that’s fine, but be aware that there will not be an “official” Ride Leader and that your group will be on its own. We’re counting on you to conduct yourself both legally and safely okay? Remember that it might’ve been you in the Green or Red group not all that long ago, and now you are both able and anxious to go faster, and that’s great! But there will be folks that need the company and support of their fellow riders and they deserve to have a great ride too, right?

We will have maps for the Tuesday Night Ride Routes available at the shop as of April 13. The plan is to develop 3-4 different loops so we can respond to wind and weather conditions.

The Friday Morning Bagel Cruise started this past week. Meet at the shop for an 8:30 “clip-in” time. We ride 20-25 miles at a “conversational” pace and then hit one of the local bagel places for carb-replacement. This ride is open to everyone and we don’t care how fast we do or don’t go! Really!

The Saturday Sprint Ride starts on April 19. This traditional workout ride predates the very existence of Velo City by at least 15 years! It rolls at 8:00am sharp for the shop for 25 miles of high speeds and sprinting for every stop ahead sign along the route. This is the only ride that we promote where the “gloves are off” and it’s pretty common for folks to get dropped. We re-group after each sprint for the first 1/2 of the ride but the tradition is that any splits in the group after Beeline Hill are gonna stay that way! This is a great ride to test your fitness and/or see if you’re ready for the Grattan Race Series.

The April Fun Raiser Ride has been moved to April 27. It’s the Spring Pineapple Bob Classic and that mean s that we’ll be riding on as many dirt and gravel roads as we can link together. We leave the shop at 2:00pm and the loop will be 35-40 miles. There will be sandwiches and such back at the shop.

The May Fun Raiser has be re-scheduled as well. The new date is May 25 and it’s going to be the Dessert Ride. That means lotsa yummy munchies after the ride! Time is 2:00pm and the route will be all pavement. (Yes, we know that it’s Memorial Day Weekend. Not everybody leaves town!)
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for our regular scheduled communication at the end of the month! Thanks for reading and even more: thanks for riding! We’ll see you on the road!

The Velo-Citizens: Matt, Ted, Aaron, Berger, Jeff, Greg, Sandy, Kelly, Da’ve, Tom and MC