Lee Bautista

I appreciate this post. I was the one who crashed because of all the
crazy braking going on. I've touched wheels before and if everyone's
calm it usually self corrects. When I touched wheels Tuesday I was
completely calm pretty much soft pedaling to slow down. Alas, my wheel
was knocked out due to either the person hard braking or not holding his
line. The guy behind me went down too.

To answer your question, I think this will be typical with these larger
groups. In the race of the 11th I counted maybe one or two times the
pace slowed enough to use a brake. Of course the field was smaller. This
weeks was much different. There wasn't a real need for the consistent
accordian effect we were in. I, too wish to know why all the surges that
night. What a mess. My friend says keeping a solid pace is not what
happens in cat 5. Why not?

But I'm not complaining ... Heck, even the pro's crash. It's part of the
game we choose to play and I'll take my lumps.

Though, in the future I'll put less trust in the guy in front of me. My
notion that people know what they're doing cost me a lot in road rash,
bruises, torn clothes, and a tweaked pedal. Thanks so much to the OBRA
guy who washed my wounds and dug rocks out of my elbows!! That helped a
lot.

Oh! for the computer geeks out there: My garmin edge had us going 24 mph
on that straighaway, 19 mph at impact, HR was 180 bpm. It was neat to
see the graph's superfast decline on impact and where I skidded on the
pavement. ouch.

Still. Can't wait for next race. (should be okay with braking, it's an
ITT). I learned a lot from this last one. Follow your gut. Don't trust
that wheel in front of you. If the group can keep their heads on
straight, hold your line, soft pedal instead of braking; that would make
for a better race. It can be fun. Thanks OBRA. See y'all out there again
:)

_____

From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of KG
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:19 AM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Newbie question: "BRAKE!"

At PIR in the Cat 4/5 race about every mile everyone would yell "BRAKE"
and some form of chaos would ensue. Is this typical of most races or
just new riders not pacing properly? I feathered my brake once when I
knew no one was behind me and the guy next to me yelld, "BRAKE".

Of-course eventually there was a wreck from an overlapped wheel so maybe
the yell is the lesser of two evils?