Deo’s Paceline Training and Exercises

Sunday morning started with Lito A., Rhey, Jeffery, Gil, Kapatid, Milton, and myself ready for Cycling Basics 101! Deo started by showing us about 30 different types of stretching and exercises! We warmed up pretty good as we did about 10 counts of each exercises with reverse movements on some. He advised us to do all of these exercises every morning. Some of the exercises also included sitting on the ground where you need some type to sheet or padding to sit on and also a wall to lean on for the other ones but this morning, we were pushing my dirty white van! Wearing any kind of sneakers is a must but not cycling shoes. We quickly redid all the exercises as a recap as he was expecting us to do them all first thing every morning.

Next we hopped on the bike and only strolled slowly by pairs side by side around the parking lot. And the task was to lean against each other. It proved to be difficult as this needs to be practiced a lot! We did that for a few minutes before heading to the road. Then Deo divided us into 2 different groups. As soon as we were lined up, the 2nd group coming from behind came in faster and gave a little push on the sides of each rider in the leading group. These 2 different routines were really good especially to get a feel of close riding, where you really have to use your body to balance and not your steering.

Next we practiced our rotation. The rider who just veered off as the pace leader let the next lead rider know if he was clear to go to his front. Same at the back where you will let the pack know that you’re the last one moving up so the next rider will know when to change to the faster line. The slow paceline was not tight as expected but became more fluid as we did more laps.

We all noticed that we were conversing a lot but this time was more on letting the riders around you that you are there and letting them know your next move. These all boiled down to a safer ride and a much better and organized paceline.

Deo really got good feedback that we wanted to schedule this class every Sunday morning. Hopefully we can encourage a bigger attendance and if we get more responses in our yahoo group, shout box, and from scheduled rides, then we’ll get this on the calendar once or every other Sunday. Let your voices be heard!

Arden