WE'RE BACK!... CAUTIOUS RESTART TO OUR WEEKNIGHT RIDES ON TUESDAY, JUNE 30 Our club leadership has been debating the right time to restart club rides... We've decided that now is the time, but we're going to take a cautious approach for the following safety reasons... • We're still in a pandemic situation... So we would like all participants to plan to have a mask in their possession at all times before, during, and after our rides and maintain social distance at all times including during the ride. It's a personal decision as to whether or not you wear your mask during the ride... It is likely that not all riders will wear one during the ride... In fact I rode on the trail last Tuesday and Thursday evenings during our usual ride time and it was very rare to see any cyclists wearing one. Regarding social distancing during the ride... Since we're all triathletes, it's necessary during our races to maintain spacing that is above and beyond the social distance recommendations, so we recommend that you treat the distancing as if it is a triathlon (USAT's draft zone is about 20 feet and IRONMAN's is slightly under 40 feet; 20 feet should be adequate for our rides). • There are new/inexperienced cyclists, runners, and pedestrians on the trail. During the pandemic more people have taken to local trails to work on their fitness. In some cases they are not experienced enough to know how to use the trail or handle signals such as "on your left". Additionally, this could mean more people overall on the trails. So we highly recommend dropping down a bit in the intensity department. We'll treat at least the first couple of rides as mostly social and that will give us a chance to assess the situation and discuss further. A short two event series for next Tuesday 6/30 and Thursday 7/2 will go up no later than tomorrow covering the first two rides; the rides will start at 6:30pm from the Reynolds Dog Park in Oaks (our usual ride start/end point) and will be scheduled for 90 minutes. Additional events will be posted for future weeks. Here is how the rides will work... • Uncoached rides: We will run these rides as "uncoached group workouts" meaning that we will not have an official ride leader/coach. Very likely one or more of our club leaders will often be in attendance and can provide some coordination, but, for the time being, you should not expect coaching guidance as we've often provided in the past. • Group size limited to 5 riders: If we have more than 5 riders attend, we will divide into multiple "sub-groups" with each having five or less riders and each "sub-group" released a few minutes apart. • Face masks required to be in your possession: While it is a personal decision whether or not to wear a mask during a ride, all riders must have one in their possession at all times. • Social distancing: Social distancing must be maintained at all times... At least 6 feet before and after rides and during stoppages and 20 feet between bikes while riding. • Reduced intensity and heightened awareness: Due to the safety reasons, please use common sense while out there and assume when passing cyclists and pedestrians that they may make a mistake when you call out to them or pass them... Always ride defensively in these situations and back off of your usual intensity a bit. Please follow these guidelines so that we can continue to move forward with additional group rides. Note that we may adapt some of the rules or add others as we proceed... We'll all be learning. And if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please post a comment or contact any member of our club leadership team. Welcome back and (for those of you old enough to remember Hill Street Blues)... "Let's be careful out there!"