Hello CVC members,
CVC has asked for volunteers to head up a Risk Management team with the
goal of enhancing the safety of our group and individual rides. We
(Stephen Levinson and Carla Weier), have stepped up to take on this
role. Stephen, a retired physician, has been a member for about three
years. He describes his job as navigating the fine line between benefit
and risk, similar to what we hope to accomplish with club cycling.
Carla is new to the club as of October 2024, a Triathlon Coach and
Personal Trainer who’s been actively cycling for 16 years. She started
racing triathlons while living in NYC where cycling is like being in a
video game. Lots of stimulus, crappy streets, dense city traffic,
pedestrians, and very little room for error.
We recognize that many of our members have been in cycling accidents
involving trauma. We suspect all of you have had at least one very
close call, whether it was your fault or not. Accidents occur for a
variety of reasons: bad weather/ riding conditions, loss of focus, poor
judgement, insufficient skills, overly fatigued, undernourished, or just
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Our goal is to make us all better, safer cyclists, so we feel confident,
whether riding Mellow Yellow or Red. We have outlined some steps to get
us there and it will be a process. Please be patient with us.
In the near future we will be sending out a membership questionnaire.
We hope that all of you will respond. Our goal is to learn where you
feel competent and what safety lessons you’ve learned over the years.
Acknowledging your experiences will help determine where we can improve
as a club so all members feel more safe riding alone or in a group.
What we anticipate doing next is the following:
• Give ride leaders education on what to do in the event of an
emergency. This information will be shared with the whole club because
the leader is not always present at the time of an incident and we want
to empower all of you with the knowledge to handle most situations.
• Provide specific riding safety practices. This may include a
team meeting that involves an outside organization to speak to us, but
will also include written guidelines.
• Feedback from the questionnaire will allow us to come up with
a plan that suits all our ride levels. We may introduce cycling skill
clinics, short pre-ride discussions on how to improve a specific skill
or handle a certain situation, as well as guidelines on how to be more
aware and visible while cycling.
We look forward to ramping up our safety initiative and working with all
of our CVC friends to keep safety front and center. Please feel free to
reach out to either of us to brainstorm and share ideas.
Carla
carlaweier(a)compleatfitness.com
Stephen
sglevinson1(a)icloud.com
