Angry about today's club ride

[ace]

Hi all,

So I went to ride with my local club today. I rode with them last year, and had a great time. Today was the second ride of the season, although last week's ride was pretty much rained out (only a few people showed up). I ride with the Light group, which is the easiest group, is no drop, and is for beginners.

Anyway, I am recovering from a knee injury, and am under doctor's orders not to ride too far (over about 25 miles), and not to ride much elevation. The ride today was billed as 28 miles, only a few hundred feet of climbing, I looked at the route sheet and it was clearly pretty flat, so I wasn't worried about it. Well....we get going, and the leader decides without consulting any of the group (about 20 people) to just do whatever the heck he wants, and we end up riding massive hills, totally off the route. I was so angry at about mile 20 that I started crying, 'cause I knew that tomorrow I'll be in some major pain, but there was nothing I could do about it because I didn't know where we were, there was no route sheet. The other ride leader talked to me about it and was totally understanding, but there wasn't anything she could do because the other ride leader is very domineering and wasn't consulting her. We did finally peel off and find a relatively flat way home, but I ended up riding 40 miles, lots of climbing. I heard other people saying (and they were mostly first timers/beginning riders) that they were so tired they didn't even have the strength to unclip. It was scary.

At the (nice) ride leader's suggestion, I'm going to email the president of our club. I feel that it's totally inappropriate to deviate that much from the printed route. It's my responsibility to decide beforehand whether I can do the ride, but how can I make that decision if I have no idea what ride we're doing? I am really furious. I came home, did lots of stretches, iced, and am just hoping that I'm not using a cane tomorrow. Fuming, hopping mad....

-Amy

[KnottedYet]

I'd say the domineering ride leader was a major b*tthead and irresponsible!

[ace]

He is. He treats the "Lights" like we're his little fiefdom, and I think no one else in the club wants to give up their Saturdays to lead us, so even though everyone in the club knows he's a nut case, they let him lead.

He is very good about instructing people on how to cycle well (shifting, pedalling, etc.), but sorely lacking in coaching on group riding skills, safety, etc. He told me today that he can hear the people in the back when they were saying "car back!" so it was disruptive for the rest of us to repeat it! How does he know that everyone could hear them? Plus, last year he basically wouldn't let me stop to drink on a couple of rides when it was over 90 degrees, said I had to learn to drink while riding. I ended up getting heat exhaustion twice (I have a camelbak now so that problem's resolved).

He's not a bad person, just drunk on power and clueless.

[makbike]

I think there is at least one of these in every club! I've had my encounter with my club's jerk captain and I typically will not participate in his rides (not that he cares but I choose not to subject myself to his inflated ego).

I'm sorry you had to endure this today. I hope you recover quickly.

[Triskeliongirl]

A suggestion, why don't you volunteer to lead the beginners ride. Leading ride doesn't take a lot of experience, it just takes being willing to show up early, pass out maps, and ideally STICK to the planned route, periodically stopping to regroup. If you feel you are not fast enough, you can also 'lead from the back' , letting everyone know ahead of time where the regroup points are.

[ace]

You know, Trisk, I thought about it, but not this year for a couple reasons-

1) I am going to skip a few of the rides, because they're too much climbing for my knee

2) I'll be in Italy for 3 weekends so would miss those rides, too

Also, leading in this club seems to require some mechanical ability, and I can barely change my own flats.

There are a couple of hundred people in my club, there's gotta be someone better suited then that guy. The co-leader (and pretty much everyone else in the club) just doesn't want to go head to head with the guy, so until the club confronts the issue he presents, nothing will change.

I will feel much better when I've had my say to the prez.

[ace]

I got a nice response from the club prez, I've pasted it below with my response to him.

Happy to report my knee feels really good today- turns out that ride did me no harm, but that's not the point.

______________
Thanks for your quick reply, Al- much appreciated. I'm sure it will get resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Maybe if so many of the new riders are not real beginners, they should be encouraged to ride with the Humanes, so that we can still maintain a true Light group. What I really want to avoid is feeling bullied/ashamed because of my ability (or lack thereof!). My goal is to improve, but like everyone else, I gotta do it at my own pace!

Best,
Amy

.............................
Amy, read your note and wish to thank you for letting us know your feelings. I will surely address the situation and we will hopefully resolve the issues. To help avoid this happening in the future I am going to suggest that prior to a ride, the ride cordinators, state their desire to change the route and this will give those who have a problem, with the suggested changes, to speak up and get issues resolved.

Thanks again for apprising me of the situation..

Al

[alpinerabbit]

It's good you said something, but it would have been better to talk to the person directly instead of going through the prez.

I know it's hard but every time you do it, you grow.

[ace]

Actually, alpinerabbit, I don't think you can know what would have been "better" for me to do, since I was there, and you were not.

I did talk to him directly, at least to tell him my knee was a mess and that I was angry he'd deviated from the route. His response was to offer to push me up the hill. When I declined, he got mad at me. He is not a person willing to listen to any criticism whatsoever.

I know this guy well from having ridden with him every Saturday last summer. Pushing the discussion with him would have been pointless. It was the other group leader who suggested I talk directly to the president, not to the jerk. I am not an avoidant person at all, and will generally speak my mind in a direct manner, when it is appropriate (as evidenced by my direct response to you!).

[mary9761]

I'm glad to hear you're none worse for the wear today, but like you said that's NOT the point. I would be angry as well as intimidated were I a very new rider to the group and the ride leader take off completely from the stated/mapped route without my prior knowledge possibly leaving me stranded in the middle of nowhere not knowing where I was or how to get back to where I started from. I'm glad you said something to the president of the club. Someone doing something like that wouldn't make me feel very welcome to come back for a second ride. Of course most of the CIBA rides I've gone to locally, I end up riding for the most part by myself and my big gripe is when there are to be SAG stops available and on the rare occasion I don't have ample extra food or water with me because I thought it was to be available the SAG leaves before I get to the stop. It has happened to me a couple times and I did complain to both the people who were listed as being the ride leaders/SAG providers (I actually saw the SAG pull away minutes before I got to the stop on one occasion and rolled up to find nothing but a pile of melting ice where the SAG was to have been) I've also posted my complaints on the local forum for the club where it turns out I wasn't the only one with those concerns. Of course there were those who are/were much like this guy appears to be that say well if you can't keep up why are we supposed to babysit etc. I've mentioned that if they don't want anyone but a certain speed or bike type to come to the rides they need to state that you're on your own as far as support goes.. Here's your map good luck, good riddance

[surgtech1956]

ace --- sounds you did the right thing. This 'so called' leader thinks he's something - 'going to push you up the hill'. I would be angry too.

[roguedog]

DUDE!

What a stupid a$$, arrogant mo. Where's the smiley with teeth/fangs??

This is with the yellow jackets? Seems so outta character for them and seems to go against their whole club philosophy.

[ace]

Yes, the OYJ is generally a great group. The thing with this leader is he really isn't a bad person, just lacking in empathy/sense or something. I think he thought he was paying us all a big compliment. He said a couple of times that this was the highest level beginner's group he's ever had, so I think he thought by having us ride the harder route, he was saying something positive about us. That's partly why this is so hard....I know he didn't mean any harm. But I really can't give him that degree of control over my life- just letting him decide what route we're going to do every week without conferring with anyone (and I know he'll do just that if the club president doesn't speak to him).

I think there's some conflict about the club philosophy. The leader said that the point of the Light group is to transition people to better groups. But it's a social riding club, not a competitive club, so I don't really see why if I want to keep riding shorter slower rides why I shouldn't be able to do that.

[mary9761]

DUDE!

What a stupid a$$, arrogant mo. Where's the smiley with teeth/fangs??

This is with the yellow jackets? Seems so outta character for them and seems to go against their whole club philosophy.

Here's a good one for this...

Then there is this one, but I think the first one is more appropriate.