ripple wrote:
Hmm. "Drop ride" doesn't necessarily mean "hammer fest". Especially early in the season. That's a good time for everyone to get back into group riding. No one gets back into form in April if the group gets shattered every opportunity for a pace line. Our club's rides are "droptional" ? .. if you really just can't keep up that day you're expected to just wheel it back to the shop solo. But there is no concerted effort to drop people off the ride, that's just not group riding.
AlanShearer wrote:
Just because a ride's not "no drop" doesn't mean that it's acceptable etiquette to blow the ride up right out of the gate.
I like how our club does WNR. It's "no drop" for approximately the first half. Depending on forecast winds, a projected outbound pace will be mentioned in the email, typically 20-22 mph. If that's just a bit much for somebody, the ride leader will back the pace off a touch to keep the group together. (If you're really slow, the ride leader will drop back with you, say "thanks for trying, but maybe you're not quite ready for this group. Do you know how to find your way back?") One optional intermediate sprint will be set on the outbound route, so the greyhounds can stretch their legs if they want. At a pre-announced location roughly half way, it's "game on." It's not a instant hammerfest, though. The fast guys get to the front and start creeping the pace up. Nobody rides off the front, but people start falling off the back. And so it goes until the last two standing sprint it out for the town line. At least that's what I've been told/seen on Strava, as I'm off the back well before that! Most times I solo TT it home, but sometimes two or more of us stragglers will form a "groupetto of shame" and softishly pedal our broken asses to the finish together. Fast guys are handing out beer from a cooler to the stragglers as they come in.
OP, Sounds like you need to sit down with the group and try to hammer out some mutually agreeable parameters for the ride. And maybe that's the group staying together at ~18mph to some agreed upon landmark before it becomes "every man for himself." Whatever this ride used to be, it sounds like the majority of folks don't want to (and probably can't) hit it as hard as you want to.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"