Originally Posted by
Long Tom
I had the opportunity to ride with a fast group the other day for a few miles... I found myself unable to MENTALLY close the gap and instead hung about 6 feet back, in the turbulence...
My situation is that I suffered a serious contusion to my brain in a car accident 2 years ago. I'm told that I'm now high-risk for reinjury; my brain is now "brittle". Plus the symptoms of another injury, should it happen, might be permanent. I can't tell you how much that freaks me out! Don't want to go back there.
There are two issues I'm having with trying to draft.
First, a residual effect from my injury is that my ability to process incoming data quickly is tangibly impinged. When I'm 4" off the wheel of another bike at 20 mph, I exceed my ability to process fast enough to feel in control. I pretty much just have to go into a fairly passive mode mentally and let things blur on by- hard to describe.
Second, I am very worried that I'll end up in a wreck because of people in front of me going down. At drafting distances, there's really no time to react.
However, if I'm going to get better, I need to get good at this, or, just decide it's not for me and let it go. So..... how common are paceline crashes? And how can I absolutely minimize my risks here?
The risk of a group ride varies a great deal depending upon the nature of the ride and who shows up. That said, however, I think it's not for you. You might get over the skittishness (and until you do, you'll be a danger to yourself and everyone else), but it sounds like you won't get over the impairment. I hate to be discouraging. Group riding is one of the great pleasures of road cycling, but I think it's a realistic assessment.
If you want to try it anyway, find a group of old guys who used to race.