I love riding alone, but I tend to just twiddle along and enjoy the scenery when I'm alone. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to increase my speed somewhat so I can do longer rides in reasonable amounts of time. When I ride with others that are faster than I am, I work harder and therefore get stronger and a little faster. I'm already almost a couple of mph faster after only about a month of riding with a club--and not even making it to every club ride.