Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
I think the high stakes Carbon fiber boy is thinking of are not "winning the ride"
Rather it's the risk of serious injury or death that is on the line anytime you ride in a group. Obviously it's fairly rare for people to suffer severe injuries on group rides, and fourtunately exceedingly rare for people to die, but both happen.
The point being that bad stuff can happen if you mess up, even on a moderately paced, non competitive, ride, and you need to take care in your own riding, and be alert to trouble developing from others
In the past month, our club has had two riders abandon after going down from wheel touches. Two other riders abandoned after running into curbs. Two other riders went down when their tires were caught in pavement gaps. These were on relatively easy recreational group rides. The curb hits are especially interesting. It's easy to hit stuff that's hidden behind the riders in front of you if you aren't paying very close attention, or to make a small error and drift into a curb. And always cross a pavement cracks at a decent angle, but OTOH don't take someone down if you jerk the bike around. Which means you also need to know where the bikes behind you are.
Yes, the stakes are injuring yourself or others. One go-down can ruin your whole season or someone else's. Those are high stakes to me.