Going Bowling

In Pasadena the Rose Bowl is an institution dating back to 1922 (the game is older, we're talking about the stadium). In the heyday of six day racing there was a wooden track which could be temporarily installed and the races drew huge crowds. Off and on over the years circuit races of various lengths have been run around and near the stadium which sits in an arroyo at the western end of the city. On Tuesdays and Thursdays during daylight savings local racers and other weirdos gather at 6pm to go ten 5km laps around the golf course.

In the 70's the ride used to be downright renegade. Two stop signs were blown per lap, and there was a nasty right turn into traffic on the south end of the course. Although the ride is still not sanctioned by anyone, it is now at least quasi-legal. If you ride around the golf course clockwise there are no stop signs and, of course, only right turns. The old right turn at the bottom is now a "Y" merge that maintains the right lane, although both rights at the south end have yield signs in the cyclist's lane. A lane for joggers is clearly marked. This doesn't keep them from running outside the rather spacious area, or running opposite the indicated (counterclockwise) direction. It seems to me that if a hundred or so guys were bearing down on me on bikes at 50kph I'd like to (a) see them and (b) stay the hell out of the way, but there's no accounting for taste.

So whatever happens is your own lookout. Potential liabilities abound. Crashes, when they occur, are of epic proportions. People still do it in large numbers. To give you an idea, one of the laps Thursday (typically easier than Tuesday) went off in 6:45, so everyone's getting a pretty fierce lactate threshold workout. At various times in the past I've sworn this off, opting for Eldo (a sanctioned weeknight event, deserving its own blog entry) but I keep coming back. My policy is to ride four laps, staying near the outer edge of the pack (yeah, it's harder that way) for safety's sake. Some things:

• If you are new to this sort of thing then hang at the back.
• Don't cross the double yellow and stay well wide of the jogger's lane.
  
• Don't get stuck at the front on the uphill unless you are a very strong rider. Gaps open spontaneously and if you can't hammer a kilo or so at 45kph up a 1% grade you're toast.
• Forget about elbowing back into the group.
• Don't go alone.
• Don't take it personally if someone yells at you. You're probably just doing something wrong or dangerous.