First group ride
 

Today I rode in my first group ride. We started out with about 10 of us, and after about 5 miles or so about 5 riders took off...They were doing an 80 mile...Not me....lol.....I was in the slower group and we rode right at 40 mile with an avg speed of 18 mph....By far my longest and fastest ride ever.....I also added about 3 miles round trip from my house to the meeting/starting point.....I finished the day with 43 miles at 17.7 avg mph........This was a good jump from my record 24 mile long ride and my normal 15-16 mpg avg speed rides....I noticed you seems to push yourself a lil harder when riding in a group. The guys were really cool and made sure not to drop me....I will ride with them again next sat for some more punishment...lol....:thumb:

Glad you had a good first group ride experience. It gives you confidence on your next ride. Were there many hills at that speed.

Good work.

a few small one, but mostly flat counrty roads

Riding with groups is awesome...You go farther & faster & have fun doing it.

Amen! I ride a little slower than you. (only one in my club not on a road bike or bent) But I did 28 miles on my Trek Navigator at 13.1 mph but I had less trouble with the hills than last Saturday and the group is still very supportive. We had 28 people and broke into A, B, and C groups. Obviously I was in the C group but wasn't the slowest rider this week and had so much fun I'm looking forward to next Saturday.

Group riding is fun and will push you to be better.
101 miles today average 13.5 mph, Cool 74* with 3 hours of rain.
100 miles Thursday Hot 96* drank 7 bottles to keep cool.
351 mi for the week.

I just started doing group rides. Did my 2nd one the other night. The group I ride with had A, B, and C groups. The first time there was no C group and I found that group rides can be very fast. The course was rolling hills with some flat sections. I got dropped after about the 4th steep hill, but didn't worry too much, as I knew a shortcut and met back up with the group. The next ride I did had a C group and was much more relaxed, but moved along briskly. The big difference was that when we got to the hills, most of the people took a little more time to get up. We did 23 miles that evening which ended on a 5 mile, fairly flat section. At that point, I hooked on to two others in the front and we sprinted it out, holding between 20-25 mph. That was the longest and fastest sprint that I've ever done. I just held on to the back wheel of the person in front of me and kept my cadence as even as possible. I'm hoping to lose about 50lbs, so I'm committing myself to these rides. So far, it's a great experience.