Originally Posted by hhnngg1

More of an issue is merging with a fast paceline when none of the guys know you or expect you to be there. It only makes it slightly better if you're strong enough to tow the group and pull your weight, but if you're already barely hanging on when it's your turn at the front, it's no surprise they'd be annoyed by having a random someone slow down their paceline.

I used to ride every weekend in pacelines, and I don't recall ever having a random someone jump into the middle of our group out of nowhere, even in cycle-happy SoCal. It's different if it's a hammerhead ride with a big starting group that fragments on the first big pull - in that case, lots of random groups form and break down, but even then, we never had a random single rider or duo that we passed suddenly show up in our paceline rotation.