Originally Posted by jsutkeepspining

^I noticed point 3 about the group rides the other day. On the ride there were two stronger riders (me and a 1). The rest either were low cats (5s and 4s) or non racers. The difference in speed was unbelievable. There was one point where the 1 surged up a climb, dropped everyone besides one guy and myself. The 1 sat up and rolled easy and started talking with me while we waited for the rest of the group, but the one other guy (a 4) sounded like he was having an asthma attack. In the span of 1-2 minutes we had dropped everyone, and distanced ourselves by a lot. I can understand why most people like group rides more than racing. No chance of getting dropped (most will regroup at the top of a climb), they can be the "fast" ones even when they are relatively slow.

I think the biggest limiter for new riders is fear of being dropped/the initial difficulty of racing. The next biggest would be after someone has raced for a while, and realizes that they are relatively slow, they just give up. It doesn't take much to be a 3 or a 2, but it takes a lot more to be a 3 or a 2 then to be a strong group rider, plus you don't have to travel to and from races all weekend.