What follows is a list of dos and don’ts that I have learned from experience, either painful or embarrassing, but usually both. For those who these anecdotes are teaching you to suck eggs then sit back and have a chortle at how foolish yours truly has been. Others please learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them.
1. DON’T attempt to adjust your cycle computer sensor while the wheel is in motion. I’ve put this one first as I still wince at the pain and stupidity of this howler I committed on the 2004 Torture 40. I was having a great ride until I badly sliced up 3 digits in my front spokes. I was forced to stop at a stranger’s house and beg for plasters. Blood everywhere and scars to this day. 10 minutes down on the group I was with as well. The only consolation is that pros have been known to do the same thing with instances of fingertips lost to bladed spoke. Don’t do it!
2. DON’T ride through puddles that you can’t see the bottom of. I got caught out by this at the very start of this year. I don’t feel quite so silly about this one as it was an innocuous puddle and I was mildly distracted chatting to a friend. However the puddle turned out to be a 5 inch deep crater and I was thrown straight over the bars onto the tarmac. Ouch.
3. DO set up your bike correctly. This is important every time you take your machine out of the car for a race. The anecdote I’ll cite is from my 2003 Etape ride. On arrival in France I had set the saddle height to a little scratch on the seatpost that I thought was the correct adjustment. I hadn’t taken a tape measure with me and it felt about right so I didn’t double check. It was only when dismantling for the return journey that I realised I had been approximately 10-15mm too low. I’m not blaming this for my poor ride that year but it certainly can’t have helped. Saddle height is one of many adjustments. Be aware of all things mechanical, particularly anything relating to your safety such as brakes and tires.
4. DO carry all the required food, liquid, spares, and tools that you require, or have the means to acquire them. We all occasionally get caught out by forgetting something, but always remember the fundamentals – spare tube, pump, 30p for the ‘phone, and a credit card to buy your way out of trouble. Other bits I can recommend are some form of ID, an allen key tool, a chain splitter, tire levers, patches, and if you have an aluminium frame a rear mech hanger. I was once on a weekend offroad ride intending to camp out on the Ridgeway but we had to call the whole thing off on day 1 due to a bust mech hanger and no way to replace it on a bank holiday.
5. DO know your route. Again an anecdote from the 2003 Etape. Many people and magazines had done such in depth analysis of how many watts it was going to take to get up such and such a col and how many sips of energy drink and at which points you would need them that I rebelled and didn’t take heed. I had an appreciation of the route and I got through OK but I should have been much more aware of the course. It would have made me prepare better and more conscious of pacing myself. For road races, time trials, and cyclo cross the course will affect your equipment choice with gear, wheel, and tire choice being important considerations. Even on a clubrun look up the destination so you know what type of terrain to expect. That way you are at least mentally prepared.
6. DO arrive at your race in good time. You want to arrive at the HQ with plenty of time to spare. You will need to sign on, pin on numbers, go to the toilet, pump up the tires, perhaps say some prayers to your chosen deity and do 101 other little things. And if it is a time trial your riding
7. DON’T miss your start time. At the second club hill climb last season I managed to miss my start time by 15 seconds. In a 100 mile TT this wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but for a 3’30 hill climb starting 15 seconds adrift was dumb. The only saving grace that day was that Dani had been caught out by #4 above. He was riding a borrowed carbon disc wheel with tubular tires and had punctured with no means of repair gifting me a hollow victory. Dumb and dumber?
I am sure that other more experienced riders will be able to add many more to this list and I look forward to hearing some more DOs and DON’Ts. I can laugh now at my misadventure but if there is one thing to learn from this it is DON’T STICK YOUR FINGERS IN THE SPOKES OF A MOVING WHEEL.
That snake is not a buff-striped keelback……It is clearly a Pit Viper(triangular head, grooves on supero-lateral aspect of its maxilla), not a colubrid