In my experience of mainly UK Sportives/Fondos it's a free for all if you are registered and displaying your number. There are no "teams" as such although it's pretty common to see club groups riding together. I just latch on as and when it suits and try to go with the flow.

It could also be a safety thing since they don’t know you and your skills. I was always a bit hesitant with new people unless I had time to size up their abilities first.

Oh, come on! Child molesters? I wouldn’t even want to ride with them. That’s just creepy.

Maybe there are one-horned, one-eyed, flying, purple people-eaters. But I have not encountered them… which is the same thing I said above regarding snobs on bikes. I was actually pointing out the good I’ve seen in people.

Why look for reasons to take offense or start an argument?

I think there's a law that says every thread needs some degree of contention.

I’m not offended and there is no argument.

NO THERE ISN'T, DAMN YOU!

/s

I would have cursed you out in Italian and stuck a CO2 cartridge in your wheel...

I've done this a zillion times. Never had a problem. If you come up to a team working well, or more likely have a team go by you about 2 mph faster than you, hang out for a while and watch what they do when they rotate. If they don't want you in the rotation, the last rider will drop back to allow the rotator to drop in before them. They might trade off the Last Rider from time to time or maybe not, depending. If it's a normal line and you get to the front, hold the full pace and come off when your legs tell you to, or 3 minutes. Slowing the line down causes accordioning, not good, better to take a short turn. It's not really good form to hang on the back and let each rider slot in before you. OTOH, I've been with good teams where we were pulling maybe 30 riders. In that case, you have to come back and point to the place where you want to slot in, right behind the last strong rider. They'll totally ease off a hair to let you in! When I was running pacelines, I told everyone to take 3 minute pulls, the length of a boxing round, unless that was just too long.

3 minutes would seem like an eternity to me. I prefer a continuous rotation, but up to a minute is plenty.

I think 3 minutes is ok if not hammering. A minute is more than enough when working hard and if I'm gassed maybe 15 or 20 seconds.

Most people are ok with a rider just rotating off the front as soon as the previous rider is clear.

I haven't done an organized century in a long time but when I did those things I would never join a group of strangers in a fast line. Sometimes I would go with friends or clubmates but sometimes I would go alone. I don't mind riding by myself and just chatting with riders along the way and maybe work with 1 or 2 others if they seem safe.

If there is a fast descent or twisty technical section I stay away from everybody. I have no idea if these people have ever ridden with others before and they may be on some quest to drop everybody. They can have it. I've seen enough carnage on charity rides.

One ride I did had a steep, twisty descent on a rough road. On the first turn there were 2 riders in the ditch, couple turns later 2 more. I think there were 8-10 riders off the road in that section, the most I've seen at an event.

A friend did a double century and there was a bad headwind in one section. He was working with about 7 other experienced riders when they encountered a guy struggling. It's not clear if the guy was part of the event but they let him join their line and he pulled a bonehead move and took most of them down. My friend got a broken elbow out of the deal.

Event rides with traffic on the roads rather sets the schedule. The group can't be 2 abreast all the time. One can't rotate back if there's a car back. Safety first. 3 minutes seems to be a good compromise and is sometimes not long enough. We're talking recreational riders. I've seen folks sit up there and pull for 15'. IMO that's stupid.

OTOH, I once got with 3 racer boys after the Deli Stop on RAMROD and we rode a rolling paceline full gas for the next 25 miles, passing everyone. Of course the riders we passed grabbed on and pretty soon the line was so long I couldn't see the end. But after 25 miles, we were alone again. We did 'em in one hour flat. I was anaerobic every time I came to the front, with a very serious interest in the exact location of the rider dropping back. It was like getting hit by a fire hose. There's always a up-valley headwind on that last section. I was in my late 50s. What fun. Low traffic on that road and a decent shoulder, BTW. They're ruined it now with a rumble strip between road and shoulder.

Way back when, my droogs and I used to go out with a 2 for a leader. He taught us to do rolling pacelines. It takes a lot of practice. I wouldn't try it with just anyone . . .

3 minutes does seem like a lot, but I suppose it depends on how hard you're pushing yourself. Going pretty hard, it's hard for me to keep a constant pace that long, and a constant, steady pace is more important than a long pull.

3 minutes at the front isn't pulling, it's just being the guy at the front.

My HR will be consistently 10 beats higher on the front than being 3rd wheel, in fact that's how I used to set my pace, speed not always being the best metric there. That's pretty noticeable. My group could always do 3' or so, but then we rode a lot of long distance. If a prize fighter can do it, why not us? The idea of pulling is that the riders in the line will be going as fast as they can go and still do the distance. Thus the rider on the front shouldn't experience more than ~3' of high effort on a century or longer ride. I don't know about anybody else, but I've done a lot of 2'-5' intervals in training. That's all it is, and not even a hard effort, just tempo. I don't see what people are complaining about. 1' of tempo is nada. 15' of unnecessary tempo on a long ride is not smart.

Of course if it's just a short ride, 25-30 miles, do whatever. I don't have much experience with short group rides. In fact, I can't remember ever doing one.

If everyone is putting in only 3 minutes on the front in a century, you'll need a lot of guys in your pace line.

I don't think people were complaining, we were just relating in our experience with fast group rides we take shorter pulls. Obviously it depends on how hard you are going. All rides are not the same.

I've done a lot of shorter rides that turn into a sprint-fest. I used to be an instigator on those until I started getting spat out the back.

What? Why do you say that?
ETA: 3 mins total or 3 min pulls?

3 minutes total.

Just don't:

Be the guy that politely lets each leader in turn go in front of you as you hang out in the back. This is called being a ClingOn and is punishable by having the group go all out and drop you.

Be the guy that on taking his turn on the front steps up the pace to show what a bad ass he is. This is handled by the group slowing down to their pace and letting you ride off on your own. Jerk.

Be a half-wheeler leading a double paceline.

Ride aerobars in a paceline. Obvious reasons.

Be a pedal/coaster. Riding behind someone and having to sprint and brake is exhausting. Noobie.

All that said, riding a big group every once in a while is lots of fun, but today is a solo adventure because I don't have the (mental) energy to deal with people today.