As this was to be the first ride of the season, I wanted everything to go right but Murphy had other ideas. Sometimes I think that Messrs. Murphy and Hubris take great delight in tipping the proverbial when things are done that are not quite right.
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| The beautiful Brisbane River |
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| Part of the Cycling Exhibition at the Queensland Museum |
The plan was to incorporate a Brisbane River loop with a stop at a bicycle exhibition at the Queensland Museum. The only difference between this ride and previous Brisbane River rides is that I wanted to start and finish at Norman Park Station, which was longer and the added stop over at the museum. This all seemed quite doable when planning but in hindsight there were a number of factors, had they been thought out properly, would clearly have shown that although feasible, the plan was flawed.
When I did my postmortem of the ride, it was patently obvious that I failed to consider crucial points when planning, such as:
- Considering the length of the ride, have I allowed sufficient time to have all riders back on the train before peak hour. There is quite a difference between the fastest and slowest riders within the group.
- I failed to set a time period for visiting the bicycle exhibition at the museum. Trying to muster everyone was akin to herding cats. (Thanks Dave)
- I hadn't factored in school holidays. It took us a long time waiting for our coffee etc. at the coffee spot due to the influx of mums, grannies and kids being at our preferred cafe.
- The ride was unusually slow, not because it was over long but it was hot and humid and people had become over relaxed too early in the ride which rose to lethargy among some of our riders.
- The group became fractured, with some wanting to complete the ride, others wanting to split and do their own thing and the remainder wanting to cut the ride short and catch an early train.
- As leader, I decided at this point, to disband the ride allowing each group to do their own thing with me riding to the nearest station with the slowest members. My reasoning for this is that when some riders are unusually slow, it could be because of underlying medical reasons brought to the fore by the hot and humid conditions and I wasn't about to leave them on their own to find the nearest station. The other riders I knew to be perfectly capable of completing the ride. I have to give credit here to one of our experienced riders remaining with me (Thanks Les) and as he was accustomed to the area was able to navigate to the nearest station quickly.
- A lesson well learnt and not to be repeated.
What I learnt from this exercise is attention to detail and having the plan checked by another set of eyes is paramount, it is very easy to miss the obvious.
Jimmy Bee |
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