Group-ride phobia

[rapid cycler]

I'm not proud of it, but I have it.

My one and only attempt to join a group ride went horribly. I didn't feel welcome (and it was an open-invitation, "beginners welcome" ride). I didn't know the protocols regarding calling out road hazards (and frankly found the group I rode with a tad hysterical about what might be considered a hazard, like asphalt fissures and trickles of water that would otherwise barely register). And what was advertised as a "slow, social, no-drops" ride maintained an average speed between 15 and 17 mph on a route with a fair amount of incline; after huffing along with them for about 30 minutes—and continually falling off the back of the pack—I hammered to catch up with the one rider who had talked to me at all and told her that I was going to turn around and head back—because if my absence was later noticed, I didn't want the group to disrupt their ride to look for me. I rode back feeling completely dejected, feeling like any notion I had about being a real road cyclist was an illusion.

I went back to riding solo, as I had for my first year of cycling, and have been riding solo in the 18 months or so since. I'm not sure I want to ride with a group regularly, but I recognize that riding in a pack helps to develop a skill set that's neccessary for charity rides and the like—and not having that skill set keeps me from joining cycling events of any sort. Besides, some company would be nice from time to time!

I'm really gun-shy about joining existing group rides, so I've been thinking about trying to get together a small group—maybe six at most—for genuine social rides. But even that idea is intimidating, because I feel like there are things particular to group riding that I'm supposed to know and do as a ride "leader." Are there? Was the group I tried to ride with just freaky? How can I develop the skill set I need to ride with a group when group riding seems so insular and hostile to beginners?

[Fredwina]

I think sometimes rides get what I call "pace Inflation". From having a career that involves throwing everything you own in a moving van every 2-3 years, it hard to tell what you're getting into.
And it could just have been that night. It does sound like to me that they should have done a more truthful job advertising or a better job leading. I know - i'm my clubs ride captain and one the problems i'm dealing is that "no Drop" ride is dropping folks. Basically , Strong rides will do because it only takes them an hour and my ride leader get their testosterone(I've got all guys at this point ) going, and well.....
As far as developing group riding skills, I would keep on looking. You're in the San Fernando Valley, aren't you? I would invite out here to the Inland Empire, but that's a bit too far. I've thought about trying to get a Team E group ride together, but I wasn't sure if we could everyone to agree on pace. Not to mention it's a little hot out here right now

[makbike]

Rapid Cycler:

Does your LBC offer a "new riders clinic?" If so, this is a great place to learn the ins and outs of riding in a group and to build your confidence. If they do not, why not ask the powers to be to add this to their schedule?

As far as "ride captain" duties I can only tell you what my local club expects. Ride captains are expected to provide a detailed cue sheet. The cue sheet should include directions (left, right, straight, etc), street names, distance, and comments (cautions, special notes, etc). We are not required to mark the route but are encouraged to "paint the roads" to reduce the chances of someone getting off route.

On club rides people typically call out and point to holes, bumps, gravel and road kill. We also call out turns and speed ("braking" and "slowing").

Do you know any experienced riders you could ride with? Maybe they could show you the ins and out of group riding. Maybe they have a small group that would welcome you in to their fold.

I'm sorry your LBC does not make new riders welcome. I wonder if this is a common thing in clubs across the country for even my local club makes new riders feel very unwelcome and isolated. Had it not been for my ex-BF sticking me the first year I rode with the club I most likely would have walked away with a bad taste in my mouth.

[teigyr]

I agree that group riding is very different and it can be intimidating. I've rarely trained in groups and most of my etiquette/education has been on centuries and other rides.

I will say though that we did an impromptu TE ride in the Northwest and it went really well! We had a wide range of abilities and bikes but figured out a speed that would make everyone happy. Periodically someone would want to ride faster and that's ok, they would just circle back to meet up with us. The beautiful thing about so many abilities was that we could all learn from someone. It was mostly social but it was challenging too

Might be worth just getting a group of people and having a social ride. You might learn who is closer to your speed for regular/more difficult rides but it is so great to be pushed (if you're slower) or learn about group ride rules (if you're newer) and help with flat tires (if you're experienced in that).

[Mr. Bloom]

I think the problem is the club and its leadership...not you. I encourage you to find your own group...does the club allow emails where you can reach out to the 20 other folks that have had the same experience and create your own ride?

[Zen]

I know exactly how you feel, I do most of my riding alone and I've turned back on a ride (once) and felt the same dejection. I certainly wouldn't classify 15-17 mph a social or beginners ride.

Cycling can be a very lonely sport.

If you know that many people who would be interested in a social ride you could make the first ride a short one. Make sure everyone knows the route and let it be known that you'll wait at the top of a hill or at an intersection to make sure everyone is there. Be prepared to go back and look for a rider if they fail to show in a reasonable amount of time.

If this was a club ride, see if the LBS has rides. And vice versa.

Don't give up on group rides and don't be too hard on yourself.
I think it was a combination of false advertising and less than great ride leadership.

[DarcyInOregon]

I'm not sure I want to ride with a group regularly, but I recognize that riding in a pack helps to develop a skill set that's neccessary for charity rides and the like—and not having that skill set keeps me from joining cycling events of any sort. Besides, some company would be nice from time to time!

You don't need to ride in groups to be able to participate in event rides and have a lot of fun. No special skills are needed. You just need to be able to ride the distance for the route you selected when you registered. The rest of it is more about knowing how to eat and drink, make sure you stop at all of the water and SAG stops, and to have the right clothing and saddle for the weather conditions and distance.

Go on an event ride and pick one of the shorter routes, maybe in a range of 30-50 miles. You will see what I mean. And you will have so much fun you will look for another event ride. Plus you will be meet other cyclists at the water and food stops, and other cyclists are always fun to chat with. There are lots of solo cyclists on the events; it isn't just clubs or groups of friends.

And find your own riding buddies to meet up with for your longer rides. If you see someone on TE who is in your area, send the person a PM and ask them if they want to ride with you. If you average speed is within a mile of each other, then you will be compatible riding buddies.

Darcy

[Starfish]

Ditto what Darcy said about going ahead with some charity rides. I don't have a bike club in my area, and the one group of friends I know here who ride are just way too fast for me, still, as nice as they are. I got to riding in groups at organized rides both alone and just with my then-husband, and met a lot of nice people. You can do it!

[singletrackmind]

Another yeah for what Darcy said. You didn't do anything wrong and it wasn't your fault you can't automatically belt out an intermediate + ride as a beginner. Nobody in their right mind would expect you to.
Event rides are a great way to meet people and with support you don't have to worry about being left behind, though if you were able to hang anywhere close to that last ride for as long as you did you have nothing to worry about. I'm impressed. You'll learn quickly about group ride etiquette such as 'car up' 'car back', calling out and signaling crash potentials and hand signals for turning and stopping.
I know it's kind of intimidating to be new and join in but after a few rides you'll be an old hand at it too and at event rides you aren't trying to join a group who've formed a knit dynamic like the one you unfortunately ended up in, you just end up riding with the people around you.

You can do it!

[DDH]

Just so you know, I don't ride with a group but I still go to the event rides when I can. You don't have to be in a group to ride the events.
Shoot last year when we went to the Waco Wild West ride, hardly anyone was using the bike lingo. They probably should have been, but most that passed said nothing, and of course the intersections and stuff were blocked for us so we didn't have to worry about that part.
After folks got spread out more, then more folks were yelling out about cars and stuff. I think it just depends on where you go, but the more you go to things like that the more you would normally learn as far as how things go in a group.

If we lived close I would ride with you, but you'd probably have to wait on me, sounds like you'd smoke me. LOL

[Geonz]

"pace creep" is what we call it and it's basically universal. Our Monday ride leader was completely surprised to find out that they'd totally and completely dropped a rider ... and he should have seen it happening and/or duly noted that when the group stopped halfway, that a small group was teetering in 'way behind. Nope. When we took off, they took ooooffff! again.
The ride leader is a really nice guy and a good ride leader, who basically got into the ride and forgot to check his speedo and didn't realize that what he thought was "the group" wasn't, in fact, the whole group. Our Monday rides get pretty big and we don't formally log in or anything. It *didn't* happen last week (though on the last five miles, when a faster group came around, most of the "slower" group joined the faster group).
It doesn't have to be a phobia. It's no fault of yours if the yingyangs lie and get on their adrenaline rolls. I would give it another try but be sure to tell the ride leader that you are reasonably sure that they'll be going much faster than their claims, based on your experience, so you'd like to know the route (and perhaps a shorter option).
Some people subscribe to the "hang on until you can't any more" and then drop off oh, right about the puking point. I refuse to get to the puking point.

[cosc]

Yes, riding in group or tour rides can be fun even if you don't normally ride others. Just ride at your own pace and skill level. If I can do it anyone can. Communication is a given when around other bicyclist. I enjoy yakking with others on the rode but if I'm hammering a pace that is too tiring I tell them to go on because I can't keep up that pace. Riding alone, within a tour be sure and watch your map and markings carefully for turns and etc. I am directionally challenged so this is very important for me. Just enjoy it all as long as your pedals are turning.

[Geonz]

Of course, it's impossible to ride in a group if nobody else there is *at* your speed & skill level

THere's a post on bikejournal that's totally the opposite: a guy's "first paceline." Differences were things like the people in that group that took the time to talk to him before and during and after the ride, and who didn't just go out and do their own thing, but kept in mind that somebody was trying their group out and would either have a good experience or a bad one... and that they could make a difference. (It also seems to have been a big enough group so that it broke up into *groups,* didn't just drop individuals.)

[rapid cycler]

Wow, ladies, there are so many great responses I don't know where to begin!

First, thanks for the sympathy and support on a thread about feeling kind of lonely as a cyclist. And while I'm sorry a few others have had similar experiences, I selfishly take comfort in not being the only one. As for the dude on Bikejournal, where does one find such nurturing male roadies?

Thanks for the offers to ride together. DDH, I'm not sure I'll make it to Texas, but Fredwina, my parents do live in the bustling Inland Empire metropolis of Yucaipa, so I make the journey more often than you might imagine.

As far as clubs in my area go, well, there are at least a dozen of them, so I definitely can't judge all of them by the one I tried. The especially dispiriting thing here is that, given the wealth of choices at my disposal, I zeroed in on a gay and lesbian riders' club, figuring I would already have something in common with the group instead of just being some random person with a bicycle. Needless to say, my tribe let me down in this instance. Bad gays!

I've seen a couple of the other clubs out there while on rides of my own and they seemed rather large for my taste, but I've located a couple of others on Meetup.com that seem smaller should I gather the gumption to show up for another open-invitation ride.

I guess my fear about event rides is that my lack of experience riding with a pack might make me a menace to other riders, depending on how tightly packed we are. For the last two years I've really wanted to participate in the bike tour that precedes the Los Angeles marathon, following the same route. The chance to ride past some of the coolest landmarks in the city on streets free of traffic is an opportunity seldom seen by Angelenos. But the bike tour annually attracts around, gulp, 15,000 riders, and when I envision myself rubbing tires and pedals with all those folks I freeze up. (And I can't be the only person thinking, I'll be fine as long as I start toward the back of the pack. So I might find myself back there with thousands of other people who haven't been trained in passing etiquette and holding a line. Eeek!) So, perhaps I can find a less chaotic event to cut my teeth on…

As far as getting together a half dozen folks to ride with, nope, I don't know that many road bikers. I can't even say that I know more than one. I was thinking about trying to cobble together a handful of like-minded gals on Meetup.com.

Re: speed, funny story: When I bought my new bike a couple of months ago and took my first post–test ride, I was stunned when I glanced down at the computer and noted my greatly enhanced speed. I've long been in the 13-15 mph comfort zone and all of a sudden I was topping 20 with hardly any effort! It can't be about the bike's weight or drive train, I thought. I'd gone from a carbon bike with Ultegra-9 to a carbon bike with Ultegra-10. Could a better fit really account for this new prowess? Or is it the ultrasmooth-rolling Ksyrium wheels? None of the above, it turned out. I had, uh, not switched the new computer from its default kilometers to plain old American miles. So, my speed remains the same, though I prefer the way it looks in kilometers, so I still haven't changed it over.

[Ninabike]

Rapid Cycler, I've done the L.A. Marathon ride, and I don't think I would do it again. Most of the riders are not experenced and, unless you start at the front of the pack, there are so many riders that you end up walking for the first couple of miles. Everyone is so packed together that there is just not enough room to get on the bike. There are also a lot of kids who just zoom in and out between bikes and it is not safe. If one person goes down, aboout 50 other bikes follow.

A better ride is the Volvo Tour of L.A. Fun Ride which is held in April. It is well organized and much safer. There are no real hot shot "professionals", but all are generally careful riders (like us) and everyone is respectful of one another. They have changed the route the past couple of years and the ride begins and ends on the hill that goes up towards Dodger Stadium (Stadium Way) from the Southbound I-5 freeway. I haven't done it since they changed the route, but that is a pretty steep hill. Another good ride is the Tour de Palm Springs in February. You can choose options of a century, or lesser distances. The bikes are not all packed together. Another good ride is the bike-only portion of the L.A. Triathlon which is held in September. It starts at Venice Beach and ends up at the Convention Center. The bikes are not packed together and it is a really good ride. The Cool Breeze in August from Ventura to Santa Barbara and back is also a good ride. You might check out these rides on the internet.