Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
That's okay (and appropriate IMO) on an informal ride, but if it's an organized club ride with a designated leader, policies usually dictate that the leader has to go after the rabbit, so that s/he can make sure everyone finished the ride. A rider with that very habit is one of the reasons our Wednesday ride leader resigned at the end of last season
Depends on the club rules and "generally accepted practices"... Several clubs have a general rule where if you pass the ride leader and sprint off past the horizon, you're no longer part of the ride and are wholly on your own after that. Our group (Arkansas Bicycle Club) hasn't discovered the concept of cue sheets just yet, so I've used some of these instances last year as a teaching point, and taken the pack off to a parallel, but different road for better scenery or less traffic.

Outside of learning to ride in a racing peloton or practicing race tactics, your average club ride is intended to be a social occasion where we share our enjoyment of this marvelous sport. In Magnuson's book, Heft on Wheels, his friend Saki always admonished, "Ride together."

Add together the fact that a pack of cyclists quickly succumbs to groupthink like a school of fish, and successful ride leading becomes nearly a black art...