I have only recently started riding in pacelines, and find it to be a frustrating endeavor at times, but I'm working on it. One issue is that some of those goals are mutually exclusive unless the person in front of you is just a piece of perfection, which they never are. So I can hold a steady pace, no surging, no braking, but then that lets gaps open up at times, too. When a group starts down a hill, if the lighter guys in front crank it, I'm coasting; if they're coasting, I'm braking, so that works against the "going over the top too quickly". For some reason, I find that if I'm in the back of a group going 20 mph and having trouble keeping up, that when I wind up in front of the same group going 16 mph, that's then too fast for them...I haven't figured that one out yet.

A suggestion: If you're an experienced rider, and someone you know is doing stuff like this, speak up, don't just fume in silence. Us newer people have to learn somewhere and it's not like they teach that in school. I'll do whatever I can to help other people, but can't do it if I don't know. (I might point out that I ride with several different groups at times, with many faster better and more experienced riders, but there is one person in one group that has ever actually tried to help me on stuff like this.)

Oh, one other lesson- if you're pulling into a quartering wind, leave room at the downwind side for drafters.

"he stayed on the hoods the entire time!"- I'll do this more, if I can hold the pace, when someone's drafting, it may not have been accident.