seedsbelize2

This used to be a common occurrence for me, when I rode the routes where races sometimes take place. One never actually knows whether or not it's a race, but in those days I was friendly with some of the riders and so felt comfortable melting in. The last one I melted into had a rider in the front third just sit up, and remove his hands from the bars. I seemed to be the only one who noticed. Perhaps this rider alway did this. I don't know. But I went from steadily moving forward to abruptly dropping back and sending them on their way. I was on the outside anyway, since it wasn't really my group to be in. I was just there, having been overtaken.

tomato coupe

Someone thanked you for leaving a group ride by going off into the gravel? I think you should think about this for a while ...

tomato coupe

Why is that a problem?

Phatman

To answer the OP seriously, I think you're misunderstanding the point of the original comment. If you're in an orderly paceline, it shouldn't be so hard that you're going to blow up, even on the "working line". The only time that you should be anywhere close to blowing up is when you're on the front, and in that case, the proper thing to do is just pull off like normal and when your turn to hop to the working line is coming up, you let the guy in front of you know that he can get over ahead of you. Depending on the ride, it might be acceptable to hang onto the back of the non-working line until you recover. Its way uncool to try to enter the working line and then let a gap form in front of you.

What you're describing is more of a race-type ride I think, where there's no established rotation, except for the very front of the group, and usually those have more of a race-type vibe where you're not really compelled to work unless you want to. Really the only rule there is to be smooth and don't do anything abrupt. If you're in the middle of a big group with people on either side and you can't keep the pace, the only way you're getting out of the group is from the back, and you don't need to signal or anything. You'll be too tired to do that anyways.

datlas 

It is really frowned upon by the authorities. Don't ask me how I know.

tomato coupe

Sure, I realize that. But, why?

datlas 

I would defer to the mods, but my impression is it's because it can fan the flames of drama, possibly?

WhyFi

I think that there are a couple of reasons. It's partly to quarantine a beef to one thread instead of letting it spread to many. It's also a measure against recruitment from one thread to another by people actively looking for others to help pile on. In this case, well, I dunno. It's kind of hard to ignore the OP's history, the earnestness of which is suspect, at best.

merlinextraligh

Obviously, the best place to exit a pace line without disrupting the group is the front or the back, But sometimes when things are just too hard, you’re in a situation you can’t keep holding the wheel in front, and you don’t want to disrupt the group.

In this situation, signal to the guy behind you to come up, move off the line to the side it’s rotating, and use your last strength to accelerate up even with the bike in front. Thus the rider behind you fills in your gap in the draft with little or no disruption to the group.

Trakhak

That triggered a memory. Back in the early '90s, a friend of mine was hanging around in the parking lot at a race, waiting for his cat 3 event to come up, when a cat 1 he knew rolled up and said, "I just rode a couple of hours to get here. Can I borrow your helmet?" My friend said, "Why don't you have your helmet?" The cat 1 clown looked at him pityingly and said, "Where was I supposed to put it?"

himespau 

Also, if your point is to comment on the main thesis of another thread, why not just stay in that thread? If you're going to derail it by making it all about you, that's different, but, if you just want to get clarification about what someone is saying, ask them there. That way there aren't like 27 threads about the same thing and a lot of people confused because they can't remember in which one they made what comment and some people who have only read some of them and it just gets to be a giant mess.

shelbyfv

Mar 2021. Hard to believe this has been going on for a year. Kinda like, you know.... Inexplicable.

genejockey 

Nobody wants quarantined beef.

genejockey 

I've seen the ride he's talking about, and it's not even remotely a paceline. It's a disorganized pack of really fast riders which behaves more like a race.

himespau 

Is that the one where everyone blows through red lights and a poster was on here a year or so back asking about how he could get this 100+ rider group ride with race-like tendencies the he liked to ride with to stop?

big chainring 

You ride like bloody hell until you are at the front, then ride a steady pace till you pull off. Learned this on the velodrome when I was 15yrs old. The nations best congregated at the Northbrook velodrome for several weeks of intense racing in and around the national championships. Hopped on my Schwinn Paramount for some practice laps and before I knew it I'm in a paceline that wrapped 1/2 way around the track. I was also on the wheel of the would be Senior mens Pursuit champion. Steady as she goes, with just centimeters between wheels, I had to just bare it out. Some guys would take full lap pulls others half lap. I was desperate to get out but had to hang tough for 20-25 laps. Finally I was second in line, then first, took my half lap pull, jerked my elbow and went up the banking. Whew!

genejockey 

Probably. It's infamous around here.

LarrySellerz

foolish of someone to think that they could police a ride like spectrum

LarrySellerz

Thanks for your response. I kind of feel like holding my line and making others pass on both sides is more disruptive than finding a way to peel off, but of course a sudden lateral movement is not ideal even if signaled. Either works I think

genejockey 

I think it's okay if you slow down gradually. The group will just swarm past you and you'll be spit out the back. If you think about it, that's how it works in races - somebody can't hold the power and everyone just passes them.

Suddenly slowing in mid-pack would be really disruptive. OTOH, the other riders in the Spectrum ride must be used to riders blowing up and dropping back.

big john

The police can police a ride like that. They did it here.

Koyote

This. If you can't hang in the pack, then you've picked the wrong ride. Hence my earlier post in this thread:

WhyFi

...mumble mumble mumble... Alberto Contador... mumble mumble mumble...

Bob Ross

116 pages of nonsense!

Bob Ross

So in other words, it's not "the easiest place to be"