I road this past week-end with a serious riding group. I have done very little riding in a group and none with a very serious group. The different groups I have road with have all not been serious enough. I tried to watch what they did and just follow along.
They ride out to a location. Suppose to be low key way out. Then turn around and hammer back. Love the concept
I assume we always pass people in the group on the left and never the right. What if a guy has plenty of space to the right (open slot) but insists riding close to the center line and will not get over? Yell left? Just pass him on the right?
On the way back I road with a group of 5. Each was taking a turn on the lead. How do you take the lead? Do you always wait until the front guy relinquishes? Or if they are going too slow do you just take over? Pass on the left and take the lead?
When we got to the hill I was in the very back of the entire group. Next week I think I will be in the front. Assume no issue if you are a weaker rider still getting near the front of the group. What also killed me was riding the hill sitting down. I road last night getting out of the saddle and it seemed I got up the hill a lot faster. My goal next week is not to loose the front group on the hill or at least catch them before the turn around spot.
More curious of opinion. We were riding about 40 of us. Maybe a little more. When we got to the first hill on the way out the group broke up into pieces. I could not keep up with the front group and was ahead of the back group. I noticed the back group took a shorter route. I followed the front group. If I had taken the shorter route I would probably have beaten the front group to the turn around spot. I prefer to go the long way and assume best approach.
I am really glad I road my road bike instead of tri bike. We were riding really tight and there is no way I could ever ride in aero bars and be comfortable not to hit someone. I also road most of the times on the hoods but almost no one else did. Thought that was kind of weird. The other thing is they were so quiet. No one really talked.
Overall my first real group ride was a total blast.
These are all great questions/observations that need no answering here. Just continue to go out and they will become clear …
That is a common roadie group ride: easy out, hammer back and drop each other if possible (on the hills usually).
As for “when” to pass - since you couldn’t hang with the front group, how about ‘never’ unless he pulls off (left or right, depends on road conditions, double pace-line, etc.) or flaps his arm, whatever. Then, pull through and quickly over to save yourself. They will understand.
Passing depends on the group. Usually, there is one side to pass on, and most of the time, it is the left. However, during pace lining, it is often required to pass on the right. In the situation where you want to ride next to this guy, start talking to him as you come up on his right. He’ll hear you and know you’re there, and you’ll also have an opportunity to talk to someone.
There are two ways to take the lead in pacelining: first, the guy up front will hand off. Usually, this is either him obviously jumping to one side or the other. If he’s been pulling in the center all day, and sudden jumps to the left, that’s him saying, “Go for it.” Also, some people look back and say, “Ready?!”
The second is a little more rude: if he’s slowed too much, ride up next to him. He’ll see you and fall back. Be careful using this method: it is saying, “You aren’t going fast enough. Step it up.”
Don’t lose the group at all. When to get to the bottom of the hill, just don’t be blocked in. When you stand, make dead sure that your bike doesn’t “lag” for a second - if someone’s on your wheel, and you go to stand, and your bike just stops moving for a fraction of a second, this is how accidents happen.
The faster group goes long and the slower group goes short. This way, everyone returns at the same time. Any ride this size will splinter like this.
Yes. When riding with people who are not on TT bikes, it is rude and dangerous to show up on a TT bike. Also, I rode with some roadies on my TT bike the other day (I ran into some friends from the cycling team half-way through my ride and they asked me to ride with them). They expected me to take monster pulls.
The talking thing is weird. Talk about something - probably not bikes for too long, because then you appear to be a gearhead.
These are all great questions/observations that need no answering here. Just continue to go out and they will become clear …
That is a common roadie group ride: easy out, hammer back and drop each other if possible (on the hills usually).
As for “when” to pass - since you couldn’t hang with the front group, how about ‘never’ unless he pulls off (left or right, depends on road conditions, double pace-line, etc.) or flaps his arm, whatever. Then, pull through and quickly over to save yourself. They will understand.
And definitely DON’T bring the tri bike!
x2
A few other notes:
Watch what direction the line is rotating and continue with that. The lead rider should pull off into the wind (to shelter the rest of the line.) So you could go around a corner and change from pulling off on the left to pulling off on the right. Pay twice the attention in a line that does this, they know what they’re doing and it’s easy to screw it up.
If someone isn’t pulling off, don’t pass him (it’s like throwing a flag to start a race.) Some groups are big on signals when they pull off, others just make it obvious by moving over for you to pull through. The exception to passing in a line is if he keeps gapping the wheel of the rider in front of him. In this case, he knows he’s about to get blown off the back and won’t think you’re being rude.
If you aren’t one of the stronger riders don’t take the lead. Either pull through or take a shortened pull (like rroof said.) You can also sit at the back of the paceline and let the rider coming back from the front take the wheel in front of you. When you are strong enough to take pulls try and be smooth. Roughly the same speed as the rider in front of you so there are no surges or drops in the speed.
Good questions, and to some degree the “right” answers depend on the group and even where you are in the ride. The general rules are welll laid out above but each ride will often have its own special rules and they may differ in different sections of the ride.
As for taking the short cut, since the idea is to do a group ride, most of the time it is OK to take a short cut to stay with the group and avoid being dropped. However, an unwritten rule is that once you do that, its very bad form to enter into any sprint for the finish line. Also, I have a general personal rule that I won’t sprint for the “win” at the end if I have not done some hard pulls during the ride but most folks don’t seem to adhere to that one.
I did a group ride pretty regularly for a few years. This ride had been doing the same route for at least 15 years before I started. The rituals were pretty set as to when to pass, how to pass when to race and when to pace line. I took a few years off. When I went back, there were alot of new riders but the rituals were the same. I’m sure if the ride is still going on 50 years from now it will be the same. On a good regularly scheduled ride, everything gets passed down so the ride itself is some sort of organism distinct from whatever individual riders show up any given week. Just sit back for a few rides and you will learn the ways of your particular pack.
There was 5 of us and one guy took the pull probably almost 1/2 the time. I did end up taking it a couple of times. I was really sensitive to keep the speed up and ended up actually increasing the speed a little. More than anything I wanted to go through the motions of taking it and falling back. Plus I did not know which way we were going. There are several routes that are possible.
Agree with the short pull or no pull if you are getting dropped. Go “up and off” or sit on back and let others in.
If you do pull through keep similar speed or 1mph faster, it is bad to come through way faster than the last puller.
When pulling off don’t totally stop pedaling. It is also bad if the dropping back riders are going way slower than the pulling through riders. Your pull is not really done until you are back in the line that is moving up.
If you are not pulling- stay out of the way. Nothing worse than people who get in the line then do not come forward, or try to sit in the side of the group.
Try to focus on staying smooth. Pedal a speed and cadence that keep you off the brakes and maintains your distance between you and the rider ahead. Yo-yo’er are bad in a paceline as are constant brakers. try not to blow open gaps.
Make sure you keep pedaling and don’t throw the bike back when you get out of the saddle. Seems obvious, but lots of group ride newbies get out of the saddle and their bike comes shooting back at the rider behind them.
Have fun and stay with it. The progression is: 1.)Dropped 2.) Hanging in but in pain/not able to do much 3.) Getting in there a little 4.) Totally hammering-
Rarely happens all in one shot.
Identify the experienced/good/smooth riders and learn positive habits from them.
Identify the sketchy riders- they may or may not be strong or experienced. Don’t ride like them.
I ended up getting to the turn around spot right with the last of the people that took the short cut. So they did not have to wait.
Next week I will start the hills early in the pack plus I will climb out of the saddle. Was doing that last night with much better results and felt great. Less winded but more burn in my legs. Hope to arrive with the back of the lead, long course, group.
I rarely ride my road bike. But enjoyed riding it with hills. Plus it is a lot more stable riding it over my tri bike.
I did get the feeling that this ride has been going on for a long time.
Another note: if you are in a nice steady paceline and are working together when the lead rider peels off he should let up his effort slightly and drift to the back. You should just keep going at the same pace (although now you will be cutting the wind so the effort will be a little more) but don’t try to accelerate. So if you are drafting along in 2nd place at 24mph and then the rotation comes for you to be in front, keep going at ~24 mph (or whatever you are riding) so that you have a nice smooth pull and don’t make the guys behind you all of a sudden have to work to match an acceleration.
More often than no in our small group rides we have 1-2 guys that when it’s their turn to lead the hammer for 20-30 seconds and split up the group or cause havoc. Plus, for the guy drifting back he may not be ready or able to match the hard sudden effort.
Good questions, and to some degree the “right” answers depend on the group and even where you are in the ride. The general rules are welll laid out above but each ride will often have its own special rules and they may differ in different sections of the ride.
As for taking the short cut, since the idea is to do a group ride, most of the time it is OK to take a short cut to stay with the group and avoid being dropped. However, an unwritten rule is that once you do that, its very bad form to enter into any sprint for the finish line. Also, I have a general personal rule that I won’t sprint for the “win” at the end if I have not done some hard pulls during the ride but most folks don’t seem to adhere to that one.
I did a group ride pretty regularly for a few years. This ride had been doing the same route for at least 15 years before I started. The rituals were pretty set as to when to pass, how to pass when to race and when to pace line. I took a few years off. When I went back, there were alot of new riders but the rituals were the same. I’m sure if the ride is still going on 50 years from now it will be the same. On a good regularly scheduled ride, everything gets passed down so the ride itself is some sort of organism distinct from whatever individual riders show up any given week. Just sit back for a few rides and you will learn the ways of your particular pack.
Dude, that was extremely sage, valuable, experienced advice given right there. Bravo.
and of course, don’t forget the ubiquitous group ride ritual of sprinting for town signs. when you see one coming, get ready for it to wind up.
a good comment someone made is when you go to the front, keep the pace smooth. there’s nothing worse than when someone surges on the front and causes the paceline to come apart. hills are where this frequently happens, and it’s bad form. the idea isn’t to always keep speed consistent but rather the effort.
lastly, often overlooked is ‘the touch’ instead of yelling “on your left!!!,” which is a triathlon thing. if you’re passing someone and they start to move over then simply ‘touch’ the person to let them know you’re there.
