Every week I go on a semi-competitive ride with friends where we all have fun pushing each other no matter what our abilities.

Cut throat moves are highly frowned upon and if you take yourself too seriously, then you’ll probably be asked to leave.

Even though the same group typically shows up and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, there is always room for surprise.

 

 

On last week’s ride, we rode around the Hansen Dam area where have a loosely designated sprint point after three miles of hard effort.

We normally paceline the first two miles, but things break apart quickly after that.

Everyone was hanging on until one of the riders we call “Foxy” made a surprising, yet timely move (:06 mark).

One of our strongest riders, Daniel, reacted and closed the gap as I was trying to move up on his wheel.

Maybe Daniel is too fast for his own good, but with his head down he caught Foxy’s wheel a little earlier than expected (:21 mark) and almost causing a collision.

 

With me being the closest behind, I reacted by hitting my brakes in case of a crash.

I looked like from my angle they made just a little contact

As a result, I lost speed and never caught back on which was the correct thing to do in this situation.

A couple hours later, I started to think to myself what if this was an actual pro level race?

Would tapping on the brakes been the wrong move?

Do you always assume all is well until things actually go sideways.

The correct thing would be to ask a pro, but that would be too easy.

Then again, I imagine there are those with their chest puffed out saying they’d never brake because they’re all hard and that.

You know that I know who you are…

Anywho, I’ll leave this open to comments.