How to Run the Egan Ride

• Fun Traditions
  • Sandbagging excuses
  • First/last route
  • Ugly socks
  • Humorous email intro
  • Pre-season banquet
  • End of season banquet
  • Egan Awards at the end of season banquet
    • At the banquet I gave out several “awards”

      • There were no physical prizes because by the end of the season I was always too burnt out to actually make things.  So it was more like “acknowledgements”.

        The awards should be delivered with humor and gusto

        I’d usually consult with Hal and Katheryn about candidates a week or two before the banquet

    • Most Improved
      • The final year I couldn’t come up with anyone, so I gave “Least Improved” to Max Noda, who showed up mid season and was consistently in the top three or so, despite nobody having heard of him.
    • Golden Sandbag
      • A rider who is always talking trash about their fitness but goes on to thrash the competition.  Can also be given out for consistently creative sandbagging excuses.
    • Crash Test Dummy
      • The rider who repeatedly shows up with road rash.
      • The rider who suffers and recovers from the most spectacular bike related injury during the season
      • One hopes it’s not “the rider who crashes on Egan”…
    • I’d often make up a fourth award
      • “Most Fred” would be a good one
  • Route constraints
    • No duplication of routes during the season
      • Except first & last
    • Don’t repeat a hill two weeks in a row
• Ideas to make things easier
  • Splitting the ride into two smaller groups
  • Limit the number of routes
    • It’s hard to pick routes, and it’s hard to remember where all the hills are when you’re tired
    • Same route every week
      • This is an extreme solution, and would drastically change the nature of the Egan Ride
    • Rotate through a small number routes
      • A reasonable solution if you find it hard to keep things straight, or find picking routes onerous
      • I’d suggest using three to five routes
• Notes

  • A surprising number of peole have no idea where they are during the ride.  They just follow the wheel in front of them.

    • I’ve had people who didn’t even know what town we were in
    • Some people enjoy letting others do the thinking
• Important details
  • Flats & mechanicals

    • It’s not practical to have forty people wait for a flat with limited daylight, on narrow roads where the whole route is close to home.

      Explain this gently & quickly to the rider

      Find a volunteer to help them if they need it.

      • Make sure they know how to get back to civilization
      • Everyone has a phone with Google maps these days…

      That said, don’t leave people to die in the wilderness

  • Fitness requirement
    • The boilerplate says “If you can do OLH in under 25 minutes you should be fine”
    • Sometimes you’ll get questions from people who don’t know OLH
    • Set expectations, remind them it’s not a no-drop ride
  • Junior riders

    • Occasionally a kid will show up.

      You should request that they bring a responsible adult on the ride with them

      You really don’t want to be stuck making an unpleasant phone calls to a parent if there’s an accident

      Tough call for bigger kids (old enough to drive)

  • Crashes & injuries
    • In all my years riding and leading there’s never been a serious crash
    • You should think about what to do in advance
    • Ask if anyone on the ride has medical training
    • Make sure you carry a working cell phone
    • Make sure YOU have an id bracelet with up to date contact numbers on it
  • Legal liability
    • Running the ride as an Alto Velo event should give you some degree of support
      • One presumes that AV has liability insurance.  I know they have a lawyer.
    • You should at minimum have an Umbrella Liability Policy from your insurer
    • You may wish to consult your lawyer
  • Egan isn’t a strict No Drop ride

    • Don’t beat yourself up if you lose someone off the back occasionally

      You may need to gently inform a particularly slow rider that you’re going to have to leave them to die in the wilderness.  In my experience people take this well.

• Routes
  • Route database
  • Considerations
• Season Timeline
  • Pre-season announcement
  • Pre-season banquet
  • First few rides
    • Short routes due to limited daylight
  • April - June
    • Business as usual
  • Summer solstice (Late June & early July)
    • Three long rides since there’s plenty of daylight
      • Alternate between long & normal over five weeks
    • Central Portola Valley
    • Cupertino
    • Northern Portola Valley
  • July & August
    • Business as usual
  • September
    • Short routes due to limited daylight
  • End of season banquet
    • Egan Awards
• Weekly announcement email
  • Content
    • Introduction
      • Notes about the current or next week’s route
      • Admonitions, warnings or rants

        • If people have been especially stupid about things like the yellow line rule or being rude to the locals

          Unusual road or weather conditions

      • Upcoming events of interest
        • Egan banquet, Club picnic, Pesky race, Nifty Ten Fifty
      • Humorous anecdotes, bad puns, stupid dad jokes
    • Egan Boilerplate
      • Where & when
    • Club Boilerplate
      • Legalese & CYA
    • List of intervals
    • Cuesheet
    • Distance & climbing
  • Should go out Monday afternoon
    • Later than that and it ends up in the following day’s AV digest
  • Same subject and sender every week
    • Make it easy for people to filter their mail
    • If you need to change the subject leave the start the same
  • To: Alto Velo email list
  • Bcc: Private Egan list
    • Currently maintained on Dirk’s mail server
    • Could be moved to Google groups or elsewhere
    • I Bcc it to avoid people spamming my private list
• The actual ride

  • Email announcement day before

    Leader should arrive no later than 6:00

    Pre-ride spiel

    • Welcome to the Alto Velo Egan Ride
    • Acknowledge sponsors
    • Remind riders of etiquette

      • Yellow line rule

        Don’t hold up traffic

        All the cars on the road are people eager to get home to their family.

        We’re riding in a wealthy area, and people will not hesitate to call their local governement and complain

    • Make announcements
      • Club business or upcoming events
      • Notes about the route
      • Reminder about next week’s special ride
    • Ask if anyone else has announcements
    • Welcome new riders
      • “Raise your hand if this is your first Egan”
      • Get their names
      • Try to actually remember them…
    • Sandbagging excuses
      • “Why are you going to be slow today?”

    Leave the parking lot at 6:05

    Ask someone to get a count of riders at the top of the first interval

    • It’s handy to know if the ride is growing or shrinking during the season

    Pick up riders at Foothill & Edith

    • If the route doesn’t go straight down Edith try to wave at the riders and get the pointed in the right direction.

    Let people know what the first hill is

    As you approach each interval yell out approximate length & steepness

    • If you can be detailed, great
    • Anything is helpful
    • “About two minutes, stair step”

    Yell out directions if there’s a turn in the middle of the interval

    Pay attention to safety during the interval

    • Do not hesitate to call out idiocy

    At the top pay attention to traffic and try to herd riders out of the way

    • Feel free to yell and berate people

      Most people are completely blown, and can barely ride straight.  They’re not capable of processing subtle & polite.

    Reiterate safety & etiquette if people were stupid during the climb

    Wait for tail end charlie to crest the hill

    • It’s usually the same one or two people for every hill on a given ride
      • Over the season you’ll learn who the tail enders are
      • Tom Lawrence is often the last up, and he often wears a red jersey, which is handy

    While you’re waiting for the last riders to pull up let folks know about the next hill

    Marshall the crew towards the next interval

    Try to talk to a few different people between hills

    • Introduce yourself to new riders
    • Don’t just talk to the same few people all the time

    You’ll need to be near the front between hills to direct traffic and assess conditions

    • Watch out for construction, cars, etc.
    • Be ready to improvise

    At the top of the final interval thank people for showing up, remind them of anything important coming up in the next week or two

    It’s nice to lead folks back to civilization

    Make sure people who drove to the ride know how to get back to the school