Yes. This is the big race to many of the people there.
On our group ride yesterday we had a team show up and treat it like a race. They were delightful, especially when they tried to block for someone going off the front, causing the group to fan, forcing 1 dude right onto the yellow line where he was promptly hit by a passenger side mirror of yet another ******* (& hit&run!) driver who decided that was the right time to pass all 50 of us.
Just what we needed on a Sunday morning.