My first group ride - help!

[kerryhb]

My first time riding with a group will be in August (Cool Breeze Century in Ventura, CA). I signed up for the 38 mile ride and I won't know anyone - my DH is doing the century so he'll be off in a different direction. Last year I went with him to watch and there are tons of people... I want to have fun, enjoy the scenery, not look completely clueless (although I am), but mostly be safe around others and not jeopardize anyone else. I am excited but nervous and would love some advice. Thank you!

[Possegal]

i would not advise my method - falling and injuring oneself within view of the start line, thereby allowing nearly everyone to ride past you, which diminishes any fear of being a hazard to others. :)

i'm no help, obviously, but i'm sure you'll do just fine! :)

[alpinerabbit]

It would be courteous of your "dear"H to accompany you on your first group outing and stick with you.

[kerryhb]

Funny you should say that...he wanted to but I said no. This is something I want to do on my own.

[Pedal Wench]

Try to ride 'predictably' -- in a straight line, without swerving. Call out "Stopping" if you're stopping, "slowing" if you're slowing. Point out obstacles, smile at everyone, and have a blast!

[alpinerabbit]

'round here there are hand signals for slowing down and pointing out obstacles. Over there?

[Pedal Wench]

At the bottom of this page: http://www.sorellacycling.com/calendar.htm is a great document we put together on group riding skills. (One of the crashes mentioned in the intro was mine...)

[Tabby]

i would not advise my method - falling and injuring oneself within view of the start line, thereby allowing nearly everyone to ride past you, which diminishes any fear of being a hazard to others. :)

i'm no help, obviously, but i'm sure you'll do just fine! :)

Oh, my gosh Possegal, that's crazy!:eek: Classic! Classic and crazy!

I assume you made a come back, right!??:D

[Possegal]

yep, i was battered and bloody, but also laughing the entire time. which i would say was why no one stopped to check on me. my sister was with me. but really, we had nothing but open road for many miles after that. the hills led us to eventually catch up to a lot of folks.

i like that the funniest part to me was that as i was bent over trying to put my shoes back on (cause naturally the only way to get off my bike was to take off my shoes) my sister was trying to get on her bike and not once but twice, kicked me in the head. :) i just said to her - good thing i'm wearing a helmet. so that gave us another couple miles of laughter.

we're nothing if not amused by ourselves, my sister and i.

[NbyNW]

My first time riding with a group will be in August (Cool Breeze Century in Ventura, CA). ... I want to have fun, enjoy the scenery, not look completely clueless (although I am), but mostly be safe around others and not jeopardize anyone else. I am excited but nervous and would love some advice. Thank you!

I bet there will be plenty of people who feel exactly like you do, and they'll be too worried about how they look to worry about how you look. Maybe you'll meet some of them!

And you may also meet some more experienced people who just want to make sure you feel welcome and have a safe and fun ride.

DH and I went on our first group ride over Memorial Day weekend. It was a privately organized tour, and the organizer was a guy who just wanted everyone to have a great time, since his mission in life is to share his love of road touring. He was operating the SAG van, and went back and forth checking on people, and there were 2-3 people every day who were "sweeping" -- keeping the group together, checking on those of us in back who were not as fit as the speedsters in front, going to look for the teenager with a flat tire who took a wrong turn and insisted on riding separately from his family for the first time . . .

Don't be shy about introducing yourself to others in the group. You'll probably fall into pace with others at your skill/fitness level, as I did, and you'll be able to keep each other going through the day.

I hope you have a fantastic time.

[RolliePollie]

You'll do great! I did my first big group ride (the Tour de Tahoe last September) all by my little old self and it went quite well...much better than I expected. Even though many people thought I was crazy to do my first organized ride alone, I think it was the best thing for me. I could go at my own pace, stop when I wanted, and I didn't have to worry about keeping up with someone else. I also think I was less nervous because there wasn't anyone around paying any attention to me...I could look like a total dork and no one would notice! Plus, after I finished, I knew that I did it myself without any help or support from anyone else...and it was empowering! The only time I wished I'd had a riding partner was at the lunch stop. But other than that, it was an excellent experience.

Good luck and make sure to let us all know how it turns out! You can do it!!! And you will have a blast!

-sara

[BarbaraAlys]

Do you mean your first ORGANIZED large ride, or actually the first time you have ridden with a group of people?

If it is the second, I would recommend you find a riding club in your area. Riding in a group is great, but there are things about it that are just different from riding by yourself. You will get to practice some of the things people here have mentioned, calling out road hazzards, keeping predictable, etc.

I did my first organized ride with a friend who could have ridden much father and faster without me. The second one I did I was 'alone'. There are great things about both ways, for me. Having Tod there was a comfort for me, if anything went wrong I had someone I knew and trusted to help, but I also felt like I was always holding him back. Going by myself gave me the chance to just ride my ride. I didn't have to worry about keeping up with a faster rider, and didn't have to feel guilty about holding someone else back. I moved in and out of groups the entire day, chatting with strangers like they were family. By lunch time I had plenty of options of people to sit with, as I had talked to dozens of people on the way. There did come a time when I was alone for a couple of miles...totally alone, could not see riders in front or behind (the support crews kept coming by to check on me though). That actually was kind of nice too. I knew that no one was waiting on me, worrying about me, and i could just concentrate on pushing on.

Good luck on your ride!

[Fujichants]

I will also be riding in this event!

[DDH]

I will also be riding in this event!

So there you go. The two of you should meet up and at least say hi and maybe even ride a bit together.

I met up with Li10up in Waco one year and she rode with us for a bit, but she was a much better rider so in the end she left us, but it was great fun meeting her and riding with her for a while.

[Geonz]

+1 on - if you haven't ridden with other people, get out and find a way to do it if at all possible. There are lots of thing you can read about 'til the cows come home - but practice is where you learn it.

My advice would be to start early ... then if you're going slowly, you won't feel so "behind everybody."

[Jiffer]

I'm doing Cool Breeze as well. :D The century, which will be my first on my single. I did Amtrak on the tandem with my husband last year and he has deemed it our annual "tandem century", so I had to find a different one to ride my first "single century". I hear the scenery is beautiful, so it's a good choice for your first. I'm all about the scenery. Did 65 miles in Palm Springs, which had no scenery whatsoever, which brought my whole riding experience WAY down!!! If I'm going to voluntarily put myself through certain amounts of pain and misery for an extended period of time, I might as well have visual stimulation and distraction!

I love riding with groups, especially if you don't get yourself too caught up in trying to keep up with certain people. But when you find that you can, it's a lot of fun. I find that most people pass me going uphill, but I pass many of them on the way down, so I usually find a group I'm pretty even with. And then it's fun when you get passed by a bunch of people who get stuck at a red light, and you get to catch up. :)

I do advise getting some group riding experience, but don't stress out too much. Until you learn the art of drafting, don't get too close to the back of anyone and keep your fingers close to the break for safety. You'll learn quickly how people will point out glass or objects in the road, put their hand down to signal stopping, yell "rolling" when going through an intersection, etc. Different people use different signals, but they're pretty self explanatory.

Some people stop at every red light, while others will go through if there's no traffic coming. You have to decide what you are comfortable with.

I always recommend not riding too close to the edge of the road, where new cyclists tend to feel most comfortable. The closer to the curb, or edge the more debris there will be (tire punctures), plus if you get crowded by a cyclist or car passing too close, you have nowhere to go if you swerve to the right.

Most of all HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you. :D If I were doing the 38 mile version, I'd totally look for you. Do you know if the 38 and 102 start out on the same route at the same time? I'll look into that and maybe we can hook up for a bit anyways.