First of all, please read the attached Curriculum document before Saturday.

“What? Homework?!?! First he says there’ll be pop quizzes, then he gives us reading assignments…nobody told me the A-SIG was gonna be like school!!!”

Okay, I’m telling you: The A-SIG is like school. But it’s Fun School. Really.

This Saturday’s Goals are really quite simple:

• Ride In A Straight Line
• Keep Pedaling

These Goals are so simple they’re almost self-explanatory. In fact, historically the learning success rate for Week #1’s Goals is always highest, not just because your head isn’t bogged down with all the other stuff you’ll eventually be learning, but also because there’s something conceptually very straightforward and easy to understand about Ride In A Straight Line, and Keep Pedaling.

Ride In A Straight Line is the fundamental basis of paceline riding. By riding in a tight single file, one directly behind the other, we:

1. improve the overall aerodynamic profile of the group, allowing a group to ride while conserving energy;
2. take up less space on the road, allowing us to share lanes with traffic without infuriating drivers; and
3. present a predictable and recognizable unit, a cohesive Group Of Cyclists, allowing us to safely coexist with motorists, other cyclists, and ourselves. (e.g., if you know to expect someone to be directly in front of or behind you, you can behave accordingly; if you don’t know where to expect them to be, you can’t ride cooperatively.)

Straight line, single file, your front tire lined up directly behind the rear tire of the cyclist in front of you. In Week #1 we won’t be too concerned with how close you are to the rider in front of you, but don’t offset to the right or left. Line up straight like ducks in a row. If an FBI black helicopter is hovering directly overhead getting a bead on our un-American activities, the wheels of every single rider in the paceline should pass straight through the crosshairs of their gun sight.

And when we come to a stop at traffic lights, stop signs, etc., DO NOT break ranks and pull up next to other riders or half-wheel them. Stay in single file…because, again, that way we take up less space on the road, and we present a cohesive, predictable unit.

For further information on why we Ride In A Straight Line, see the blurb on “Pacelines” from page 10 of An Introduction to the 2013 A-SIG (which you all should have already downloaded from http://nycc.org/A-SIG and read, per Captain George Arcarola’s instructions), as well as the “Ride in a line”, “draft off the wheel ahead”, and “Follow the leader” sections from the attached Curriculum document.

Keep Pedaling is really easy to explain, and slightly less easy to put into practice. Keep Pedaling means exactly that: Don’t stop turning your cranks! Except when you’re not moving and you’ve got at least one foot unclipped, your pedals should always be turning. No coasting. No coasting when you’re going downhill, no coasting when you’re getting pushed along by a tailwind, no coasting when you’re tired and want to give your legs a break… No coasting. Ever. And definitely none of that “Pedal-Pedal-Coast, Pedal-Pedal-Coast” thing where your cadence is choppy and irregular as a Carl Palmer drum solo! You want to be turning your pedals in full circles regularly, continuously, uniformly, smoothly…all the time.

Why? There are excellent explanations on page 7 of An Introduction to the 2013 A-SIG  as well as in the “Pedal” section from the attached Curriculum document. But in a nutshell, it comes down to Being Predictable. The more regular your cadence, the more predictable you appear, and the better the other cyclists around you will be able to mesh with you.

This weekend the A-SIG leaders are going to gently remind you to “Keep Pedaling” as necessary. Week #2 they’ll probably remind you a bit more emphatically whenever required. By Week #3 if you’re not yet pedaling consistently in smooth non-stop uniform circles, the A-SIG leaders will be yelling “KEEP PEDALING!” at every transgression. Try not to be the cyclist who gets yelled at.

So those are the Goals for Week #1: Ride In A Straight Line, and Keep Pedaling.

Which is not to say those are the only things you’ll need to learn. Your A-SIG leaders will be doling out lots of valuable information, and all of it is important towards reaching the ultimate Goal, that of becoming a Smooth, Predictable, Solid, Graceful A-Rider; a “Great Wheel” that everyone wants to ride with. So every tidbit of wisdom your SIG leaders have to offer should be embraced.