The crowds (of riders) are like nothing I’ve ever experienced; possibly that’s just because I don’t go to big grand fondo rides and the handful of big club centuries I’ve done I was just getting passed.
As a heavier rider I got very tired of having to scrub tons of speed downhill (or worse, on the start of uphills) because there were packs of riders covering the entire lane. I worked for that momentum on the preceding roller, darn it!
It was fun when people had sorted out by speed a bit and I was feeling good and finally started passing people uphill as well as down about a hundred miles in, but I really just wanted an open road.
Edit: I'll add that I'm fine with group riding -- I do do group rides here and there and have acceptable pack-riding skills, at least when I'm not exhausted, but for a group ride to be my speed I have to brake hard downhill, absolutely gun it into overdrive on the uphills, and then on the flats I'm generally not working as hard as everyone else -- which is not a sustainable way for me to ride at brevet distance.
Last edited by antimonysarah; 09-08-19 at 07:13 PM.