Machka 

I have been in the situation where I've been significantly slower than my riding partner, and my riding partner wanted to get in some faster riding, so we talked and came up with several ideas which we used.

1) Time-trial tag - We picked out a 2 or 3 km square, and rode around it a few times to warm up. Then, at one corner, he stopped and I set off, and when I disappeared around the next corner about 0.5 km away, he set off. We both rode as hard as we could ... me trying to keep in front of him, him trying to catch me. When he caught me, we'd ride a few laps slowly to rest, and then do it again. The first couple times we tried it, he caught me relatively quickly ... several laps. But one day, we kept going round and round and round and round ...

2) We would set off about the same time, and he'd ride as hard as he could up a designated highway, while I would also ride up the same highway, but not as fast. At a certain point (in our case about 40 kms up the road) he would turn around and come back to meet me. Then we'd either ride my pace to the turn-around spot, and back, or just turn around where he met me. But after he'd ridden 40 kms as fast as he could, riding my pace was all right.

3) We would set off together up a particular highway, and when we got to side roads, he's sprint down the side road and back, and then catch up with me, ride with me for a bit, then sprint down another side road and back. Or if there weren't side roads, sometimes he'd sprint up the road ahead of me and back to me, and then ride with me for a bit, and then sprint up ahead again. At first I just let him go and kept going my same pace, but after a while, when he dashed off, I tried my best to hang onto his wheel for as long as I could. And of course, he let me know that he was going to do that so I didn’t wonder what on earth was up when he went dashing off.

4) He was off work a couple hours before I was, so he would go out and ride as hard as he could for a couple hours. And then when I got off work and was ready to ride, we'd ride together at my pace.

5) Occasionally, I would set off half an hour, or an hour or so, before my cycling partner, and he would ride hard to catch me.


A few years later, my father and I rode together, and then I was the stronger one. So we’d employ one of these methods …

6) There were several times where I planned out a route that included an "escape route" ... and he joined me for the first ½ of it, then returned home on the "escape route", and I continued on to finish the whole thing.

7) Or I planned a loop route of 3 loops, and he’d join me for 1 or 2 of them.

8) Or I’d plan a loop route, and go ... and he’d leave an hour or two later and ride the route backward to meet me, then ride in with me.

9) Or if we were on an out-and-back, he’d turn around at a certain point and I would continue on to another point, then turn around and ride back as fast as I could trying to catch up with him.


Rowan and I have gone through slightly mis-matched periods too. Usually, he just rides my pace, but ...

10) A few times, I was trying to build up my speed so I wanted to do intervals. My top speed on intervals wasn't much of an effort for him, and he wasn't particularly interested in doing intervals, so he got out the stop watch and did all the timing while riding beside me. We warmed up, he counted down to my first interval and off I went at my top speed while he just cruised along beside me, then he counted down to a break, and repeat. While he wasn't going top speed himself, what it did for him was to give him a chance to ride faster than we normally did.



11) And also see if there are any multi-distance cycling events coming up. The local century often has 50 km, 100 km, and 100 mile rides. Sometimes they set it up so that all the riders can ride some of the event together before they split off and do their own thing. Just a general tip for mis-matched cycling partners.

Jeremy_S

I usually do 20-25 miles as hard as I can before picking up the wife to go. She's a slow and steady type with a weird can't be behind me complex. I know her comfortable pace is around 15 mph, if I lead and try to hold a 15 she drops after a couple of miles and gripes at me, if I let her get in front she will stay at a steady 15 without an issue for 20 miles or so.

I just enjoy having her out there with me so I don't complain it's slow.

kankushok

I have the same problem with my wife. This was compounded by the fact that she had a hybrid and I had a road bike. I bought her a really nice road bike, but now we have the problem that I want a new bike too.