Hope Fades for TNR Preview. Tipping Over.

I continue to hear from people who are anxious to get the Tuesday Night Rides started. For the past day or so, I have been planning to try a TNR preview tomorrow with a 6 p.m. departure and a little spin of an hour or so. However, based on the current hourly forecast for tomorrow night, I think that plan is pretty questionable. Here is what you can expect: temperature 42 degrees, wind at 23 mph, chance of precipitation increasing to 55% by 8 p.m. We will make an up or down decision on the ride by 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and post it on the blog. If you would like to vote on that decision or have relevant information to share, please send me a text or an email.

     Nineteen years ago, I purchased my first clipless pedals. The transition to clipless was intuitive and painless. I wished I had switched over sooner. Over the years, there have been a few times when I have tipped on a mountain bike, usually stalled on a climb that I should have abandoned sooner. Plus, I can think of a couple of times in cross races when a gritty cleat has failed to release with very negative consequences. But up until today, I had never tipped over on the road. Maybe someone like Tony who has been there since the beginning can remember a time, but I don’t think so. Today, I stopped fairly unexpectedly for a stop light and found myself a little off balance. My cleat was dry and dirty and when I tried to clip out, my shoe remained engaged and I fell gracelessly to the ground. We live in a world in which every embarrassing moment eventually finds its way to the internet. If you see a YouTube video of a cyclist in a yellow jacket tipping and cursing, it is probably me. One of the first things I did when I got home was to clean and lubricate the cleats. Hopefully, that is not something that has to happen twice.