zenout

Guy in front went down and 6 guys in front of me went down.Just road rash but i had to break up a potential fight.I was thinking why am i doing this?The zen solitude i enjoy was gone and they are more concerned with being competitive then having fun and getting is shape.Some of the guys had an elitist attitude and im so not like that.Live and learn.I some how did not go down but thats the good part of being in the back.Solitude here i come.

Hendo252 

Concur about the "It's all about me" attitude that many group riders seem to have.

I was enjoying a wonderful ride on Sunday, until a group cut me off. It was on Bates Road climb (secluded road near Carpenteria) when a group came flying by at about twice my speed. Lead gets just barely past me and then swerves to the right... the group followed, and I get nearly run off the road.

20 minutes later I'm on the flats doing my usual blistering 16 MPH when a guy blows past me, telling me "a group is coming; better get out of the way"

WTF? I'm supposed to stop and get off the road so some skinny tattoed kids can play Tour de France?

We admonish cars to "Share the Road" -- that sentiment should extend to other riders as well.

zenout

Better get out of the way?So rude.16 mph is not anything to be ashamed about.Be safe.

Genaro

I realized on Satuerday, just how competitive it is. I was out on PCH in Huntington Beach and I caught up to a group of riders. The guys in the back were friendly, but after a while, I decided to pick up the pace and pass them. As I passed the guys in the front, it turned into a race that I wasn't participating in. yes, the two guys in the front passed me, but it broke up the rest of their group as they tried to keep up. Is it really that horrible to be pased ?

idoru2005

If the riders were from Huntington Beach, then yes, it is horrible to be passed.

zenout

LOL What are we 5 years old?Being passed it not a life altering moment.....Think about all the guys sitting on a couch with a stained fruit of the loom white t shirt eating Doritos and wondering why their blood sugar is a mess.Being passed means im lucky enough to be riding!

Pamestique 

Funny I was a major club rider for many years but then, as I got older, it all started pisses me off. I'm now much more relaxed and enjoy my ride either alone or with a small group (ie 1 or 2 others) of friends. Last Sunday I was just about ending my ride around Back Bay (Newport Beach) when my old club came riding by... it caused cars to stop or slow because the "peleton" took up 2 almost 3 lanes of traffic. I just waited for the main group to get by and then I started out... I am just cruising along when 3 women made the point of "PASSING!" me on the left and then promptly slowed down and started chatting... totally messed up my cadence and basically I was stuck behind them braking half the time until I had enough, passed them back and rode way up ahead.

Group riding has its plusses and minuses... I was much stronger back than because the group was so competitive but my mental health is much more relaxed and I enjoy rides more now...

I have noticed this... I am old - (61) and have been riding about 40 years. I am happy and glad so many people are getting in road and moutnain biking but those people for some reason, just aren't learning proper etiquette... as much as some young kid thinks he can compete with the Tour riders, they would beat him down if the typical club rider cut someone off or didn't know how to pass properly. No one yells out or calls hazards anymore. Funny on a MTB ride recently... doing a technical singletrack there were 8 of us. My one friend stayed behind me athough he is a much stronger rider than I. I told him to go ahead and he said "no... those guys don't call stuff out... you do!". Old habits I guess, I still believe in all the old etiquettes of road and trail.

zenout

Great post!!Your a class act.I thought i would get hell for my post so im glad to see its not just me.When i saw 2 guys weighing in at 145 in sidis about to go at it i was the only one who stopped them.It hit me on the ride home that the other riders did not care at all these two were about to exchange blows.Please dont get me wrong...All road bikers have been nothing but kind to me.

Genaro

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a challege, and trying to keep up with, or trying to pass someone, but I just thought it was odd that they didn't mind breaking up their pace and group to chase me down..

howeeee

I ride for fitness and fun so I ride mostly alone and ride a variety of different kind of bikes depending on how I feel. I like the change from road bike to mountain bike to single speed vintage and so on.

This Saturday I will ride with a senior group for the first time, I am 58 and ride all year long so I am sure there will be people riding much slower than I do, but I will just ride with them and have fun.

PhotoJoe 

We have a few groups that ride out of different LBS's in my area. One has the reputation of being very elitist, and I have to admit, when I've seen them on the MUP's, they back up the reputation. Another seems to be very welcoming and courteous to all riders. I haven't hooked up with either yet, but if I do, I know where I'll go.

My wife and I were riding through a parking lot commonly used as starting points for group rides. There were a group of riders there, gearing up. Some were on new road bikes, some old road bikes, some mountain bikes. They called us over and invited us to join them on a 15 mile ride they were going to do. Very nice people. Had to decline because of a pending obligation, but I hope to find them again and take them up on their offer. Gives me hope that the cycling community is not totally lost!

GP

You should have let them go at it and videoed it. Nothing funnier than a cyclist slapfest.

Jan Feetz

Welcome to the new generation of "cyclists"! "My Bike looks fast, therefore I am fast" "I am wearing a Team Kit, therefore I am fast"...anything else??

JimmyNH

I wear a helmet, therefore I'm superfast. I often ride without a helmet and just because of that I see more cocky attitude in a day than you guys see all year but you'll never see me whining about it on the forum.
There is nothing like riding in a group (or club, or team or whatever you call it). You just have to find the right group for you. Yes, some people will try to drop you, but that's part of the fun and it makes you stronger. I've spend quite a bit of time among competitive athletes and the attempts to kick my arse, the swear words etc. don't bother me at all. Real men should be able to deal with all that - all you need is balls and some self-confidence.

BTW, crashes do happen. These guys didn't go down because they wanted to piss you off.

Mr. Beanz

Funny! We were doing our thing on Sunday when we rolled up to another couple. We were not riding with any aggression, Gina was tired so we planned an easier ride than on Saturday. Anyway, they hop on our wheel draft for a while then sprint around like bats out of hell. Dude did pretty well but the gal kept fading. I'm shocked the dude ditched his wife like that. We kept our pace then rolled by her again. She did the rinse and repeat thing a couple of times.

I wonder why he didn't wait for her then both lift the pace dropping us like bad habits together. It would have been more glorious than the way we rolled by them a couple miles up the road when she could barely spin the pedals. I mean a track racer at Lincoln but a beach cruiser at Edna.

I mean the 24 mph sprint was glorious but the 10 mph huffing and puffing fade wasn't! Right before the glorious sprint, she had just got done asking us and telling us they were doing a ride 20 miles longer than our 42. I'm betting they turned back early.

mcallaghan

I've had two different experiences with Group Rides.

The first group I was ever part of was a local group in NJ. Very polite group of people - 30 - 40 rides each ride, all split into 3 groups (the 'A' Group, the 'B' Group, the 'C' Group). Ride leaders for each, organizing the groups (met in a parking lot of a National Park or some such). The groups headed out in turn - A first as they were the fastest, etc. C group for the casual riders. I was about 10 - 15 years younger then anyone at the time (senior year of HS for me) but everyone were friendly. I tried a few rides with the 'A' group - I could hold my own, if not lead most of the way, in the rolling Hills. But the Great Swamp (which, compared to FL, is not swampy at all) was a pancake flat stretch of road 5 miles long. I would get toasted by the A group there. So I joined the B group, and rode at the front with a bunch of older guys the whole time. We'd get back to the starting point and they'd invite me to do a few extra miles, which I was fine with - especially if my dad was on the ride as he'd be with the C group who had yet to come in). Worked out great. Single file on the busy roads, always moving out of the way for cars to pass etc.

The second group, which I only witnessed from afar and never joined (for good reason) was in Florida several years later. They'd meet at the local school and head off from there. I was riding the opposite direction. A cyclist came up and passed me, so I started drifting off of him. Always nice to find some one to ride a stretch with. Up ahead, a huge group of cyclists were taking up the entire road, cars trailing behind them unable to pass. The guy I was behind was joining up with them, slowed down and blocked my way around him as he hugged the shoulder getting ready to U-turn in the road to join his compatriots. I was unhappy, having to ride my brakes. He thought I was part of the same group. The group seemed very elitist and were riding dangerously. I saw them on a few other occasions and none of them ever moved over into single file to let cars pass. I preferred to ride on my own.

Now that I am in CO, I rarely see a group of more then 5 riders. Most people seem to go solo or with one or two friends. All move over to let cars pass and generally ride safely. The average joes are the idiots out here - was riding the bus today and saw a guy in t-shirt and shorts (and headphones) riding head on into traffic, on the wrong side of the ride (aka heading at the bus). People like that frustrate me greatly. Its one of the dumbest things you can do. A cyclist going the right way had to pull over to let the moron go and I think told him off (the moron shook his head about something). Oddly, there are tons of bike paths out here, especially leading into town traffic free, with one street being a Pedestrian-Cyclist Highway (or some such) where cars are only allowed on it for a block at a time. Why not use that instead of riding the wrong way in heavy traffic?

Different group dynamics depending on where you are in the country it seems. I ride solo out here myself. Don't really know anyone and there don't really seem to be established bike clubs (the only out here I know of is all about racing and training for races or doing TT's which is not for me) out here, just random groups of people hitting up the various Mtns.

krobinson103

Odd. Most of the group rides I see here are the opposite in terms of speed. They are polite, and usually give you enough space to around if you are heading the other way. But, get stuck behind them and getting past is a nightmare. Most of the rides are on MTBs - I ride one myself but these guys cruise along at 24km/h and there are usually enough of them in the cycle lane to make getting past difficult. I like to ride at a little over 30km/h cruise and always get caught. I usually have to take to the traffic lane to get around. They are all kitted out with the nicest gear, really nice titanium bikes etc. There is surely the potential for a much higher pace but 95% of the groups I see just crawl along for (relatively) short distances 50 to 100km.

I much prefer to ride alone just because of the sheer number of bikes involved. I'm sure they are nice people and have similar goals to my own, but after a few (unintentional) riding in single file at slow speed experiences I'd rather ride my own pace. They also all start out late in the morning and take the entire day. This is a problem with a family of young kids. I need to get out before dawn, get my century in and get home within 6-7 hours maximum. Not going to happen in those group ride scenarios.

zenout

You missed my point while reinforcing my point.Its not the tdf.It should never have a feel of an attitude that is uptight.Its suppose to be fun.

calamarichris

I generally eschew group rides with strangers. We all react differently to potholes, to riders swerving in front of us, and to pile-ups. So I generally stick with smaller groups of people I know and trust.
Riding alone brings down your impressive Strava results, but who wants to ride with a bunch of slackers who don't take pulls and are just hanging in to maintain their Strava stats?

Flying Merkel

I tend to be a solo rider mostly because I have no idea where I'm going.

Lord Chaos

I tend to ride solo because I stop to look at flowers, and streams, and birds...

The passing bug is mysterious. I was riding up a small mountain one day when another rider came in beside me. "I've been trying to catch you for the last mile," he said. I asked "Why is it so important to catch me?" He had no answer.

When I commuted down the beach, I regularly picked up drafters because I punch a good-sized hole in the wind. They didn't annoy me. The ones who did annoy me were those who would draft, then pass, and then poop out. I'd pass them, they'd get upset, work up enough steam to pass again... and then die again. I never did figure that out.

bikeme

Good post, OP. I hate "me" attitudes. I used to ride Food Park and Como here in OC in my youthful race days but even then there were idiots who overlapped wheels and made no-reason line changes almost taking out people. I was on a solo a few weeks back and Como came by me, so I jumped in. Same bad behaviors so I peeled off shortly after.

I've even seen total solo fred dorks scream at peds and recreational riders, "Bike back, bike back, passing, move over!!!" What idiots.

jmX

Do you really not get it? Seriously? Or did you just say that to the guy to make him feel bad?

Years of evolution has made us competitive, may the fittest survive. It is natural instinct and especially strong in males, but of course you already knew that. Today most people use that instinct to create goals to motivate themselves to push harder. You were a goal that day for some random person. It doesn't sound like he was doing anything out of line or abnormal.

As for Beanz and your tales of riders sucking wheel, then attempting to pass, and then failing - isn't that pretty common simply due to the fact when they're drafting they're becoming totally rested, then they feel like they are going to slow and decide to pass, only to wear themselves out once their face is in the wind and fall back. This stuff happens in racing as well as rides on the MUP.

This isn't rocket science guys....those people probably aren't idiots any more than you are.

As for group rides, I don't do 'em and I'm probably a liability anyway. I crossed wheels with idoru not too long ago and I'm still not even sure how it happened.

Condorita

1. then = sequence
2. than = alternative
3. Is there a problem with your keyboard, Zenout, that it works fine to space between words but doesn't after punctuation? You might want to get that checked out.
4. I always ride alone. I don't ride for speed; I ride because I want to explore. That's why you don't often find me on the trails.

fishymamba

I like the competitive group rides, makes me want to push harder which I like.