7/10 on the troll.

It was actually only 2/10 on quality, but you got 5 points for the traction.

Between you and "sub 5 or I die and I don't care if I leave my kids orphans" there have been w pretty great trolls in a couple days.

Well done sir, well done.

I was on a group ride a while back we were rolling out of town nice and tidy in two lines just setting up pace to get warmed up before we hit the hills. Some guy kept riding up between us and tried to keep going harder so he'd be like 10 feet off the front of the pack. We asked the guy to tone it down to no avail. At one point he made another one of his heroic attacks and got a nice Gap. So we just turned left and left him to his solo breakaway.

Sometimes I think about all of the oddball characters I've met through 40 years of cycling I'd love to have them all together on one big group ride. That would be colorful.

I reminded of running xc back in HS. We had a pretty studly team, state champions who would go on and rep team USA.

I remember just a long easy run where one of young kids kept leading like 10’ ahead of everyone the whole time. It was kinda like we all knew he was meaning to do it.

So what did we do? Quietly without him noticing it we turned around and went in opposite direction. It was brilliant. He didn’t notice for a mile that’s how much he was trying to stay “off the front” before noticing we left him.
Lesson learned by him, of course I was a freshman that year so I was kinda in back so I couldn’t go off front as I was fast but not on their level. So their “easy” was my probaly “moderate” but I was also the rookie so I dared not try and ever “lead” the run.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

You could start your own club. Sounds like you've got several other people who have had it with that group and would be happy to join you. I've seen this frequently in cycling. I'm lucky to have tons of clubs and rides around me, since I'm picky about who I ride with. Then, there are clubs/rides that scare me to death when I see them out riding...

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

Yes. The two wanna-be roadies should start a club!

At least sheepster has found a compatible group. mwhiner needs to follow suit instead of complaining. You already have a built in infrastructure with like-minded riders just waiting to be extracted and exploited. Just step up, be a leader, and get it going instead of waiting for the original group to change to suit you.

Have you ever rode a Worlds night? I’d speculate there are a lot of triathletes that don’t even know anything about that type of ride.

but if it's you and two other guys, is it? just be a pack animal roadie and fuck with those guys at every turn, that would be more fun. don't just take off, stretch em out a bit, but keep them in contact, dont let them know you can ride up the road never to be seen again. keep giving them hope, act like you're knackered just to make it stink. soo much fun, you're missing it dude!. :)

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

Am one of the main riders of a local group ride. It's a drop ride, with some ex- and current continental racers showing up. But it is explicitly advertised as NOT a hammerfest. Average speed for the ride is around 33-34kph.

What's important in our ride is that everyone understands their role in the ride. If you're a strong rider, take your pulls. There are 3-4 of us regulars who could be riding abit faster, but typically we just treat it as a long tempo session. Ride on the front for 30 mins at 36 kph. Then there are a couple of sprint points. More than enough for you to get a good workout in. The weaker riders just sit in and gradually get stronger because its a workout for them as well.

If everyone is on board with similar goals and can check their egos the ride works.

Road cycling club drama is part of why I bailed out of riding with groups, got a tri bike and started training solo. I still enjoy the peace and quiet and have not forgotten how bad the drama was. However, it was completely different than this thread. Most of the difficulties came from members bringing their friends that were too inexperienced, wouldn’t follow the rules during the ride, were taking risks in the group, complaining constantly about the route, the pace, the weather, you name it they complained. Most of the time I had to drop out of the group and make sure a weak rider made it back safely. I don’t have the patience to go 6mph for 20 miles back with a rider that bonked. I helped organize, put the email out and lead the ride for one season until I couldn’t take it anymore.

Occasionally I will ride with a small group of friends but I’ve come to really enjoy solo training and cycling.

Is it actually a world’s ride though, or is that just the name of the Strava segment for the route you follow? Very different things. I just ask bc 18 mph max, no attacking doesn’t sound like a world’s ride. Frankly if that were the case I’d be baffled.

Other option: get some fat tires and hit the dirt! More exciting variety of terrain, new challenges, less likely to get hit by cars, and, as long as you are not disrespectful to the trails that people have worked hard to build, no drama!

 
when you say cycling club, is this actually a club with a commitee, or just one of these strava/facebook "clubs"

if the former, it sounds like you need to talk to the commitee, and see what their view is.

First, that was a good example of why I shouldn't post when I've been drinking.

Second, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about when it comes to road cycling.

Every club and individual has their own definitions of what's "hard", "race", "no drop", etc. No point getting frustrated about stuff you can't change. If there's a bunch of guys who want to ride at 18mph and have made it clear that's what they want to do, then if you don't want to ride at 18mph don't go on that ride. The guy you think is a douchebag is probably posting on another forum right now venting about the guy who keeps turning up to a "CAPPED 18MPH RIDE" and then goes off the front at 21mph and breaks the group up.

If you want to ride at 21mph then set up a ride, within or without the structures of the current club, for people who want to ride at 21mph. Sounds like you'll get enough takers to have at least a small group, and if not then you ride solo which is what you'll be doing anyway. And I imagine the guys who want to roll at 18 and have a beer afterwards will be happier as well as they'll be left in peace to do their thing.

I've actually seen another club go through a very similar evolution to this. When I first showed up it was a pretty social club, weekend rides were all no drop or regroup, they liked their coffee stops before and mid-ride, and a beer afterwards, I would ride with them occasionally at weekends but only when I was in a recovery week and had plenty of time on my hands. They also had a midweek evening ride, 20 mile loop done "balls out", with a few different groups setting off at intervals. Even the "fast" group really wasn't that fast, maybe 20-21mph first time I did it, but they were nice people and the start point and time were on my route home from cycling to work, so adding it on took me from ~35 to ~55 miles for the day which was decent. A few other faster riders started showing up, things started to get competitive, riders were getting stronger, and the speed of that fast group kept creeping up until about a year later it would be at 25+mph. Then that ethos started seeping into the weekend rides. The club still had the social rides with coffee stops, but some of the riders who had been getting stronger through the midweek rides started organising weekend rides that were a bit more challenging. Club is now larger overall as they can offer something for everybody from the casual recreational rider through to those who want to race, and nobody got overly dramatic about it. Everyone's a winner.

I'll say this, if you do have a weeknight ride you like but are growing out of.........do your intervals and burn up your glycogen before the group ride starts. If you want to still ride your road bike.

I've done this recently a few times with the local A ride that's about 19 including all the slow stuff through the city/campus. It makes it a good bit harder.

I did 50 mi of tempo and a couple intervals before the last time I did the normal local A, and the last two mile pull I put in near the end of that ride hurt soooooo bad.

Also, once, I rode the 1x cyclocross bike on some big Gators. Bit of a difference between that and the road race bike on GP4000 tires.

We even had a local Cat 3 or faster dude show up and keep up on his mountain bike somehow.

There's an option, the intentional handicap.

My cycling club has no problem whatsoever... with triathletes riding off the front!

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Munq

This. My dad used to say - "if you're in a group and you don't know who the a**hole is, it's probably you."

In all seriousness, it sounds like the OP did some serious training over the winter and wants to air things out. Good for him, but he probably shouldn't ride with this group anymore. I gave up group riding in about 2010 - I still like all the guys I rode with then (mostly they're older and I know them from work), but I had started doing triathlons again and it just didn't work out. It may be a good solution for the OP to start his own "club," even if it is only a handful of riders. No reason for anyone to be a jerk about it, though.

As a TT guy who races no draft...I have done a few group rides with buddies for the company...

But cycling groups and drafting are cute :-)

This thread is awesome. It's basically all the bullshit of group rides, now written on an Internet forum. I can even match comments with some folks.
Thanks for the entertainment, lads.

Our A group rides from our tri shop there is no "tuesday night worlds" tag line to it. It's just basically bring what you got. There are 2 people that when they show up, no one can touch. Of course both will play nice and paceline in the group, they don't "drop" the hammer at first segment, they let the ride develop and then the deciding moment will lay down the speed. Of course this ride sheds riders pretty much from the start after the "warm up", so even before the line in the sand segment of the ride, just the intensity of the ride sheds riders every so often up until that point. Then there's one road that really "blows up" the group. Of course they all come back smiling and sharing their ride war stories on who got dropped first, who didn't pull enough all in good fun with beers after. No dramas, no "hurt" feelings.....You show up on the day and maybe your the hammer, but just know that you'll likely be the nail to someone. But makes most of them stronger even "sitting in", etc.


If you can ride away from an A group paceline working to catch you and/or stay on your wheels- you got the goods. Most people can't.

Those 2 people- one is a roadie and one shows up on a full aero'd out TT bike. The TT'er shows up much less than the roadie does.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

This. You're too fast for this group, you don't like this group generally, and it sounds like they don't like you. Sounds like an obvious solution! As others have mentioned, there is a difference between aggressively trying to drop the group (slingshotting through the gap after front rider falls off, etc) and just generally riding fast and hoping others can hold on. It sounds like you get this and this isn't your transgression though. Any group who calls themselves an A group and targets 18mph seems off, but if you keep on coming around and banging your head against a wall, at a certain point it's kind of your own fault.

Agree with everything you say apart from allowing a guy on a TT bike out on a group roadie ride!

I didn't call it a roadie ride. :)

Our A group rides from our tri shop

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I have done TONS of roadie group rides on a TT bike.

You just have to ride it like it's a road bike, unless you're off the front.
Never once had anybody complain, and in fact, have done several rides where some guys didn't even notice/realize that I was on a TT bike until after the ride ended.

Just follow the usual rules, ride like you know WTF you're doing, and don't be a dick.

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float , hammer , and jog

Or you can ride with most people you trust and thus can ride down in the TT bars the whole time and never really have crashes.

Is it the "safest" thing to do? No

Can it be done in the right environment? Yes and it’s communicated as part of the ride, so take it or leave it.

ETA: and if your a roadie that doesn’t like that then guess what you do...you go ride one of the various other 20 “roadie” rides in our area.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Better be keeping the required distance away from each other! Drafting is a NO NO lol