Hain’s Pt peleton rides

[KLizotte]

To clarify since I’m the one who brought this up:

I’ve ridden more loops around HP than I care to count and have had been passed by many, many pelotons and have never had a problem before. I wear a helmet mirror and try to stay out of their way as much as possible. Most of them are good, alert, courteous riders but I do expect them to respect other road users who may not be clued into pelotons and their habits though. I have no problem with people using HP for training under most circumstances and have done bone headed things myself and have forgiven others for same.

This was a highly unusual and upsetting incident though.

On my left coming up to the intersection was a hand cyclist (15-16 mph) in a *very* low slung racing bike with two body guard type cyclists next to him. I wouldn’t say moving to my left was impossible but it didn’t really seem necessary since I was in front of everyone else including the peloton and I didn’t want to get in the way of the hand cyclist and his entourage.

I’m slow, my bike has a rack and I had a pannier on it, and I’m not as skinny as I should be. No one would confuse me as being part of a peloton. As soon as I came up to the intersection I was suddenly swarmed by a large pack of very fast riders who only slowed enough to take the turn without skidding out. I couldn’t stop, slow down, or go straight without risk of serious injury. In fact, the hand cyclist cut right in front of me with a hard right and came within about six inches of my front wheel. Only by braking and swinging to the right was I able to avoid collision. Keep in mind that a hand cyclist is not within one’s normal visual range being so close to the ground. He swore loudly as a result; I’m not sure if it was just surprise or inventive at me. If I’d been going a little faster there *definitely* would have been a collision.

As we made the turn, I felt a couple of elbows brush me. That is how close they were and I’ve never ridden in a peloton before so this was not a safe and happy feeling for a novice.

Worst of all, a guy next to me turned and said “where the hell do you think you’re going?!” I replied, “well, I was planning on going straight, but I guess not.” Another replied, “get the hell out of the road.” Someone else in the back swore at me too but I didn’t make all the words out. At that point, we were on the straight away and they peeled off.

I.was.furious. This was the second closest I’ve come to being in a bike accident caused by others; the first was being cut off by a u-turner on PA Ave. That is saying a lot.

I would have been in a forgiving mood if they had apologized, had looked a bit sheepish, and most importantly, learned an important lesson and tried to do better. The attitude displayed certainly did not lend itself to that interpretation.

While I will be careful to avoid the pelotons in the future at this intersection, I am mostly concerned with kids/novices/tourists, etc. biking there who may be very seriously injured by this type of behavior. I also do not want to have to pull over to the side of the road every time I want to go straight because people don’t obey the rules of the road. I “Idaho stop” there all the time and don’t care if others do but being “swarmed” by others is an entirely different matter.

I don’t know which group this was since everyone was wearing different kit (did not appear to be the United Healthcare folks).

I used the Lance wannabe invective to simply point out that this is precisely the sort of behavior that spawned the term and gives credence to our detractors. I dearly want cycling to grow in all its forms in the DC area but these incidents are not improving safety for all nor making a good public relations case for the expansion of sport oriented cycling. One serious accident caused by a peloton will result in speed humps up and down HP or else it being shut off to cyclists entirely.

[KLizotte]

I wonder if it would be possible to convince the owners of the RFK parking lots to allow pelotons to practice there when events are not being held. Huge parking lots with no one to bump into.

[KLizotte]

@jabberwocky 92285 wrote:

I think large groups could probably do intervals at Hains without being total douchecanoes. They might not get to go 100% full speed 100% of the time, and would need to work on communicating when they need to slow down or yield to other trail users, but its not like thats some sort of tremendous unsolvable problem.

Could they not break into packs of 2-3 cyclists for the intervals? Better sightlines and communication plus the workout would be harder without the benefit of such a large group.

[vvill]

@KLizotte 92302 wrote:

I don’t know which group this was since everyone was wearing different kit (did not appear to be the United Healthcare folks).

There’s always Strava fly-by… http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#177104674

FWIW I think the groups are impromptu/pick-up – whoever shows up, shows up, so they don’t really split. Also the bigger the group the more race-like the conditions… I heard someone crashed into the back of a car they were following earlier this year but not sure exactly. Also last year or perhaps the year before there was an ambulance called out because of a crash in the noon group.

[KLizotte]

@vvill 92307 wrote:

There’s always Strava fly-by… http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#177104674

FWIW I think the groups are impromptu/pick-up – whoever shows up, shows up, so they don’t really split. Also the bigger the group the more race-like the conditions… I heard someone crashed into the back of a car they were following earlier this year but not sure exactly. Also last year or perhaps the year before there was an ambulance called out because of a crash in the noon group.

Just checked, no one from this forum showed up as an intersection flyby as best I can tell Interestingly, one flyby named his ride “Mistake in the Peloton”.

P.S. I was only checking to see if I could figure out if it was an organized ride or not.

[jabberwocky]

You know, I’m fine with groups out there working on pacelining and sprints and riding fast and such, but a huge group basically holding an impromptu crit race on a public road frequented by slower cyclists/runners/pedestrians/cars/etc just seems like a really bad idea to me. :confused:

[dcv]

@KLizotte 92310 wrote:

Just checked, no one from this forum showed up as an intersection flyby as best I can tell Interestingly, one flyby named his ride “Mistake in the Peloton”.

guess i better behave on the bike for fear of getting caught.

sorry you had a bad run in with a bunch of jerks.

[dasgeh]

@KLizotte 92302 wrote:

One serious accident caused by a peloton will result in speed humps up and down HP or else it being shut off to cyclists entirely.

This made me laugh. Do you know how many serious accident caused by cars and buses have happened here and in other parts of DC?

I’m not saying they were in the right here, but your description makes it sound like you were in the middle or to the right of the lane, when you knew there were other cyclists coming up behind, and you knew that the vast majority of all cyclists turn right there. I can understand the surprise that you weren’t turning right.

It sucks that they did sucky things and more so that you felt threatened and scared. That really sucks. Please try to refrain from extrapolating one bad experience to all (race) cyclists everywhere.

[KLizotte]

@dasgeh 92314 wrote:

I’m not saying they were in the right here, but your description makes it sound like you were in the middle or to the right of the lane, when you knew there were other cyclists coming up behind, and you knew that the vast majority of all cyclists turn right there. I can understand the surprise that you weren’t turning right.

A cyclist should never assume a driver or a cyclist is turning right unless they signal otherwise. I also fully expected that they would slow down, and wait for me to clear the intersection before turning right as other pelotons in my experience have done (and which is required by law).

@dasgeh 92314 wrote:

Please try to refrain from extrapolating one bad experience to all (race) cyclists everywhere.

If you carefully re-read what I wrote, you will see that I didn’t, and do not.

[KLizotte]

@dcv 92312 wrote:

guess i better behave on the bike for fear of getting caught.

sorry you had a bad run in with a bunch of jerks.

Laugh, I wasn’t checking up on anyone; just trying to determine if this was an organized ride or not so I could send a note to the organizer.

That’s ok. I’m fine but I am concerned about someone getting seriously hurt in the future if this behavior continues which is why I brought it up.

[Arlingtonrider]

I’m really sorry you had to go through all that too. Hains Point is a lovely place to ride most evenings. If you want to get all that bad juju out and hang with some nice folks for awhile, come join us for a Kidical Mass ride sometime.

[vvill]

@jabberwocky 92311 wrote:

You know, I’m fine with groups out there working on pacelining and sprints and riding fast and such, but a huge group basically holding an impromptu crit race on a public road frequented by slower cyclists/runners/pedestrians/cars/etc just seems like a really bad idea to me. :confused:

Impromptu as in there’s no designated organizer or team, but it’s M-F at noon roughly. (I’ve never been to the Thurs night version.) And I don’t want to exaggerate/misrepresent – it’s not a full-on crit – it’s more like a steady fast paceline/peloton with one sprint per lap (finishes before the stop sign).

[Raymo853]

@KLizotte 92310 wrote:

Just checked, no one from this forum showed up as an intersection flyby as best I can tell Interestingly, one flyby named his ride “Mistake in the Peloton”.

P.S. I was only checking to see if I could figure out if it was an organized ride or not.

Nice to see flyby being used for something other than stalking cute riders or runners.

[hozn]

@Raymo853 92326 wrote:

Nice to see flyby being used for something other than stalking cute riders or runners.

Wow. That is the first I had heard of this creepy use of flyby. I thought it was just used to find folks that you see on a ride that Strava doesn’t track as having “ridden with you”.

[Starduster]

@KLizotte 92303 wrote:

I wonder if it would be possible to convince the owners of the RFK parking lots to allow pelotons to practice there when events are not being held. Huge parking lots with no one to bump into.

I have not seen it, but I understand cyclists have used the RFK north lot to ride. If they want to race, perfect place for it. The course outline and the FIA-spec curbs from the American LeMans Series race of 2002 are still there.

[Author]

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