Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hammerfest

Draft. verb. To ride closely behind a competitor, saving energy by using that racer as a wind break. Riding in front is very strenuous but affords a great energy-saving advantage to the rider behind.

Drop, dropped. verb. To leave behind, to be left behind.

Hammerfest. noun. A brutally fast ride or race.

Paceline. noun. A string of riders that moves at high speed with each individual taking turns setting the pace and riding in the draft of the others.

Pull. noun, verb. A turn pulling. To take a turn at the front of the group, maintaining the same speed of the group.

Today's training/touring ride was supposed to be an easy 50 miles at 14-18mph. But alas, it was not to be. A few miles in, the route took a 5.5 mile run up a low-traffic, well-paved street. At some light or other, I pulled out early (darn left turn arrows!) and decided to keep going... ended up pulling a paceline of 8 guys at 24mph.

(It's so, so quiet at the front. Nothing but wind and the hum of the front tire... didn't know I was pulling at the time.)

Unfortunately, that set off the hammerfest. At the turnaround point, several of the group (we'd dropped the other 10 long ago) were discussing "not hammering" on the way back.

So the return was 19-21mph into the wind, single paceline, "not hammering". (Ha.)

Probably doesn't mean much if you don't ride... or it sounds like really scary and dangerous Tour de France stuff. (It's not scary when you know the guys in front of you know what they're doing.) I'm pretty darn proud of myself.

3 comments:

Jon said...

Wow. That does sound like fun, and thanks for the education. "Draft" was the only term I knew going into your post.

Trevor Harden said...

sounds exciting and exhilarating

anonymous julie said...

It was significantly more gratifying that wasting my time in the office.