Originally Posted by
volosong
A funny story about the last time I rode in a paceline. I hadn't ridden with the Saturday Morning club ride for several months and woke up early enough to do so one day. We did our traditional warm-up ride, then split into groups. Up to then, they only had two groups, the fast guys, and the not so fast guys/girls.
The very first time I rode with the club, I went on with the fast guys. I fully expected to be dropped . . . but not within the first quarter mile! I haven't ridden with the fast groups since, but always with the intermediate, slower group.
So, when we were, at the split point. The ride leader was explain the routes, but with forty something riders, and stopping in the street at a stop sign, it was next to impossible to hear what he was saying. I knew the fast guys would go "that" direction, so I went with the others.
On our split group, the fast guys took off, leaving the rest of us behind. I chased after them and hooked on is short order and we developed a little pace line of five riders. I rotated through once, back to the end, and eventually back to the front again. I was feeling pretty good, the road was on a 0.5 or 1.0% down grade, so I just motored on, pulling extra time.
I finally decided to swing off, but took a quick look back to see if it was safe to do so. To my great surprise, the rest of the paceline was more than a half mile behind me! What the???? So, I just put my head down and motored on, setting some personal bests and even got into the top-10 on a Strava segment.
Back at the mid-ride meet up point, I discovered that there were now three groups, and that I had joined the beginner group! The intermediate group went off with the advanced group, but made a right turn a mile up the road while the advanced riders continued on straight.
Oh well, I had a good ride. It felt good! Speed is fun, too much speed is dangerous.
Cool
By far most of the very little paceline riding that I've done was in centuries where I just joined in uninvited. But I did OK while I was there because I could keep the pace and my bike handling was good enough I guess.
I did burn out keeping pace with a couple early in centuries though and struggled to finish after pulling out after my last pulls. I never asked for a freebie and just wanted to pull my weight as thanks for being able to participate.
I saw some road rash, mad riders and heard some sad stories at the end of centuries though when other pacelines crashed out from somebody they were blaming for it, even in my first century, so I was always aware of the danger.
Once I was in a paceline (that was probably a little too fast for me in the long haul) and we were going around a long lefthand curve in the road. I was thinking about my Univega's low Bottom Bracket and my 175 crankarms alright but I kept pedaling through because I didn't want to cause any gaps in the line. So I see a pedal cap passing me on the left and thought: Some silly fool almost crashed the line out. I did start tilting my bike the opposite direction when pedaling with my left after that but didn't realize it was my pedal cap until I finished the century and went to put my bike in the back of my pickup.