Originally Posted by
aplcr0331
So are these group rides where everyone knows it's kind of like a race? Are people trying to "win"?
I've only done group rides where people stick together, or maybe a few go off the front for a bit on hills or whatnot. But these groups I'm in usually have A,B,C type groups. And you slot in with whatever you're comfortable with and ride together.
This sounds like more of a race type situation. I think where I live now it's mostly younger guys who might have fast group rides and I don't think I'd fit in with that group.
Of course we'll see if they actually start doing group rides this year!
Every ride is a race, even if you don't know it
That's the motto around where I live. It's a race, but it's purely for bragging rights around the coffee table. I do race outside of bunches so it's a great training tool.
I live in a small 20k people city. There's one main bunch and they know there's times for fast rides and times for chilling out. On weekends our general organised rides are all out and back ~45km each with Sat: 6am FAST, 7:30 social out, handicapped race style back or regroup at top of climbs and fast last ~10km depending on the route; Sun: 6:30 FAST, 8am no drop social with a short fast downhill leading into a sprint near the end for the keen ones but regroup riding back into town for coffee. There's a variety of fast and social bunch rides throughout the week in the mornings and afternoons. On our FB page for posting rides we generally post the expected pace for interested parties to know what they're up for.
If the riders in your bunches race, then they should be doing a mix of fast paced and tempo/recovery riding. Try and sound out and pick the slower recovery rides as your pathway to step things up and introduce yourself to the newer bunches. Alternatively you pick the bunch/ride depending on what you want to achieve. There was a bunch I used to ride with years ago. Good social bunch and the riding was good, but they used to like to stop and chat for what seemed like FOREVER at every turnoff. We'd wait for dropped riders, but then spend 5+min chatting after they caught up. It was nice and social, but a little too social for what I was wanting so I changed bunches.