Originally Posted by
Portis
See my recent thread. Needless to say, i hate group riding. I went the other night just because i had been wanting to ride just out of curiousity to see how i would "measure up."
I've ridden one group ride, each of the last two years. So i've now done 3 group ride in the last 3 years. I had a very similar experience to yours. The guys that ride every year are mainly the same cast. They are all racers and fast, and they are proud of that. There were a few new faces but they were all very fit and everyone had expensive madones, colnagos, etc.
So here I come with my $520 Trek 1000, with a Brooks saddle and two HUGE water bottles. I'm sporting a major FRED mirror on my helmet. Everyone immediately looks down on me and nobody says a word. Anyway, we finally depart and here we are, all nine of us in a tight group as we head out of town.
What you interpreted as "looking down on you" could also be concern about a person they've never ridden with before. Having ridden with tight groups, I've learned that people learn how each other ride. Protocols develop that help keep things smooth. When a newcomer shows up, it can result in messing up the paceline.
I am very uncomfortable in this pack as i am a solo rider and have ridden nearly every day solo for the last 1500 days or so since i started riding. The first thing i find odd, is how slow the peloton is moving. I am having a hard time "keeping up" with the slow pace. There is NO wind resistance and that makes me want to GO.
We are only riding around 19 mph so everyone can stay together i presume. It wasn't long before a couple of the "leaders" started bossing me around telling me to keep the same pace etc. I was not bashful and took the lead several times mainly cuz i was frustrated.
If the leader was "bossing you around" it was because you weren't doing things right. Calling it "bossing" reveals that you have an issue with learning from others. Being the newcomer to the group, and group riding in general, you should have been willing to learn from them, but instead, the huge chip you were carrying on your shoulder cause you to think of it as bossing.
I knew that there would be a break later on as i know a couple of the racers are very fast. I know their plans are to casually ride out and then a couple of them will hook up and dump me. So I played along till about 15 miles in and finally as we start on our return trip to home the leader breaks away. I thought, "what the hell, i'll go with him."
I know that he is faster than me in any sprint but I am eager to have some fun. So i hunted him down and he fell back in place with the peloton, probably a bit annoyed that none of his buddies went with him and that i did.
It's funny that on your third group ride ever you could so well anticipate what the group was going to do and someone else's reaction to your catching him. It's likely that he wasn't trying to drop you or anyone else, but since you have shown that you don't want to learn from them, you may never find out...
Finally a couple miles later he goes again and takes another fast rider with him. Then everyone else goes to. I was a bit caught off guard and fell back a bit but quickly regrouped. Soon i passed everyone except for three. The two fast guyz and an older guy who was ahead about 100 meters. I kept at it and caught the old guy on the climbs and left him behind. So long story short, i ended up 3rd out of nine. Not bad considering i had a way cheaper bike, they were ALL in good shape and they all ride together year round. Again, i never ride in groups.
That's a pity. I've had way more fun in groups, fast or slow, than riding alone. The key for me for having fun was learning the dynamics of each group so I didn't mess them up.
Anyway the leaders finally waited for everyone to regroup at the end and we all headed to town together. ON the way back into town,the two leader guyz were pretty annoyed with me i think cuz they kept bossing me around telling me to stay on there wheel etc.
I really found the whole thing quite annoying but in retrospect quite amusing. I am sure a lot of them were pretty miffed to get dropped by a skinny dork on a Trek 1000 sporting a Brooks and a dorky mirror on his helmet.
They were probably annoyed for reasons other than what you think. Unfortunately, instead of listening and learning from them, you thought they were bossing you around, so you have no idea why they were annoyed.