Went out for a training ride with my bike team today. Rode from my house to the starting point, 6.3 miles, and met up with them. We decided to do 50 miles up and back on the TECO and Van Fleet trails (central Florida). The weather was beautiful - mostly sunny and 65 when we started out. Along the way, we saw six large turtles, an armadillo, three snakes of various sizes, and three alligators, all of which were about five feet long and one of which was laying on the side of the path as we went by. Then it started to get strange. Out of eighteen of us, there were a total of five flat tires, including me; five people involved in bike-on-bike accidents as a result of touching tires in the pace line, including one who went the painful way over her handlebars; and I was inadvertently run off of the trail once by a guy who swerved. It took us nearly three hours to do the 50 miles because we stopped so much. Mostly road rash and embarrassment were the worst things to come out of the accidents. By the time I rode back home, 62.1 miles round trip.

The good news is that after all of that, we should have used up our bad karma and the rest of the training rides leading up to the MS ride next month should be without incident. ...right?

sounds like you need a new "team"

Reason #10,143 to avoid Florida: Their drivers may be terrible, but their cyclists are even worse

You were pacelining on an MUP? This explains a bit .

Is this a real "team" or a club-type thingie?

Van Fleet is a state park but hardly MUP, it is over 20 mi straight as a rail. Oh, wait, it was a rail.....

Diver, I envy you....


SF

It's also one of the the most boring rides in CFL. Aside from lots and lots of turtles, there ain't much to see other than the constant line of trees 12 feet away from either side of the trail.

Thats why I ride by myself. Ive seen too many things go wrong riding w/ that many people. There are (2) groups that I see out on every ride. (1) has at least 30 and the other maybe 20. I try to leave 30 min earlier just to avoid them.