Great ride today Saturday 1/12! This is the normal Elice Cycle Big Shop group ride. Leaves from the store, 200 yards from my Hostel! I get there a little early, like 5:33 a I was a little late Thursday. Hand in my 50 Pesos to the chase car and lean my bike against the ferns. The gopro cheap that I have been using for the last year has been running out of juice on this ride. At first I thought the cause of “gopro is no longer on” was that the battery had giggled loose. It is held in with a little tape and torn carboard as the plastic piece that normally holds the battery in has decided to jump ship. I have no idea where but before I got to Cancun. On previous rides I have pulled over in the lasts 5K when the gopro turned off and “readjusted” the cardboard tape “janki” set up as Kim would call it. But when I would start up again, it would turn off again so that I became convinced it was battery used up instead of tape failure.
The above was a long introduction into the detail that I did not start the gopro at the Hostel as usual but instead left it off until just before the group ride started. My hope was that it would last until I returned. The one woman rider I have spoken to before said hello. After a little while we started off. The fast group had already left at least 5 minutes earlier with their own chase car. Certainly 12 riders but could have been more like 20 in our “gruppetto” group.
As I have described many times, the start of the ride is really like slow water torcher. The group just drifts along at a very nice pace. The case car gets into position to go out on the Hotel Road and effectively block traffic in the right hand lane so we can pull out safely. I have always maneuvered my way to be the last rider by this point or soon after. People who have seen me before, especially one of the ride leaders who is assigned to be the last one, understand. Today there seemed to be a couple who stayed behind me too long until they understood that I was going to occupy that position.
The rest of the riders all ride double file, one of the left and one on the right. I always ride alone. My theory is that I want to be sure and have the maximum degrees of freedom to maneuver when the eventual changes in speed and needs to deviate occur. Of course by being at the back I give up 80% of the drafting opportunities they are all taking advantage of. Maybe 5 years ago I realized this, was able to put my fears aside and ride in the peloton but I have long since lost that nerve.
Slowly the group picks up speed. I have already on the leisurely approach moved my front chain into the high gears. Now I am force to slowly also raise the back gears in order to keep up. All of the women peddle continuously, they never coast. About 1/2 the men, including me, peddle, coast, peddle. At some point I have raised the gears so much and am peddling so hard that I know the end is near. When I am forced to take my coasting break, I feel I am dropping off the back and it is harder and harder to dig deep and put on the power and drag myself back up to the tail of the group. As all of this is unfolding, some riders are dropping from the front to the bask. They have taken their turn at the frount, breaking the wind for the group, creating the draft, and now they will move to the back and slowly progress forward for another tourn at the front. Sometimes they do not understand that I am not in this rotation. I just sit at the back. Sometimes it takes a little more exaggerated behaviour on my part, dropping further back, to give them the message that they have to pull in in front of me, not behind. Also, we come to hills. No one but me would call them hills. They are slight inclines that proceed a bridge over a stream that drains the swaps to the right. There is one larger one at 5K, the Pirate, where boats can actually go under the hotel road. Anyway, at these up hills I often just power through in the gear I am in but it makes sense if I can shift to a lower gear as we go up and then to a high gear as we race/coast down the back side.
Sunday Jan 14 was a rain day. I always feel very guilty taking one of the few winter days when I am in 80 degree weather off from riding. Fly all this way and not ride!. As I have said elsewhere, Sunday of course was not a bike shop ride so I would have left at 8am ish if at all. I heard the downpoor at like 4am? I checked at 8am and again at 9am. Things were drying out. But there was a slight slickness of water on the tiles in my patio so I gave it up. Nothing is worth a fall and nothing makes a fall more likely than wet tiles. Most of the roads dry very well but there are a few little patches especially on a non-hotel-road day that are tile and could be a skating rink.
Monday Jan 15 I road out my straight road that I have talked about. At the moment I have a whole separate page for that day.
Tuesday Jan 16 is back to the Bike Shop Hotel road. I made it with the group out to after Pirate but before Coco Bongo plaza. Did fine getting out alone to the Cancun sign after that.. I am learning a little better the order of the sights on the ride that I use to judge my progress. Pirate and then Coco Bongo plaza where the north bound traffic separates from the South for a K or so. Then Surfin and pretty soon I can see the Ferris Wheel. The Plaza with the stone disk, Dragnet lighted sign, construction where the road narrows to one lane, OXXO convenience store. a hotel? that is mainly below ground that I call the Monitor, Harry restaurant that this year does not seem to have much of a lighted sign, A gas station, Vertical lights on the left in a semi-circle, a power plant on the right that is behind a hedge wall and really sounds like a power plant, a 7/11, horizontal light on top of a big building on the right, road starts up hill, there are turnoffs to the right that are very dangerous to me, final approach to Cancun sign. And there I usually sit down on the right side and await the sunrise at like 7:15?
One Saturday, after a short sit I crossed the road with the idea that I might rejoin the group travelling back and there was Caroline! So today I crossed right away but she was not there. Soon after, like 6:45, my group came by. yelled for me to again join but I knew if I did join I would only be able to keep up with them for 10 minutes and then I would be returned to riding alone in the dark. Better to wait for the light even if it means not taking up their invitation and better integrating myself into their social world.
About 7:15 I left and had an uneventful ride hope. A few too many close encounters with speeding busses but such is the life of an old slow man on the hotel road. I have been afraid of running out of power for my gopro so I again did not start it until the start of the ride and turned it off while I sat at the Cancun sign. It lasted the whole trip fine. I did lose front spot #2! It died just before Cancun sign. I have been lazy about charging it at night when I charge everything else. It seemed to do fine in the first days but I think I did not use it very much. Once I started using it, it does need daily charging.
I road by the bike shop after returning. The group was still there, mainly at breakfast in the cafe. I should join them but did not. This could well have been the last ride and I did not say goodby to Caroline. If I don’t ride Thursday, maybe I could go over and say goodby thank you?
Wednesday Jan 17. Back from what is probably the final ride of Cancun 2024 for me. Left close to 8 and was at the start of the straight road at 8:30. Back to the house at 9:40. Raining, pretty heavy now. Most of the time I was out it was ok. more sprinkle though I did stand under gas station roofs a couple time. The big things was puddles. I really got soaked going through them. The shoes are wet. These are the ones I bought for Dec 27 back backing non-trip. They are supposed to dry quickly. I have take the tongs out as far as they will go, put the shoes near the air conditioner and fan. I hope I do not need to wear my Timberline brown boat shoes that I did wear for the first time last night though I do fly with them on as they are the heaviest and take up the most room in the suitcase, if they ever had the chance to get in, which they do not! The breaks where not disk and were pretty worthless by the end off the ride. I turned around maybe about the middle? Anther example of I am not at all afraid to quit, change course. I think it is the intelligent thing to do instead needing to complete the goal. I think I have decided not to squeeze in a last Bike Shop Hotel Road ride tomorrow before my 4pm flight. I could do it easily. My rational is the following: Luck has gotten me this far on that dangerous road next to buses etc, why take one more chance.? On the other side my mind says, hey, do it while you can, no telling if there will be a Cancun 2025 for Tom.