Quote Originally Posted by marni View Post
I always love it when they say this is a "no rider" left behind ride, and they are cleaning up the first/last SAG stop as arrive a bit later than the group because you were only going 17mph instead of 22, and again as the sweep rider whips by you just after the turn around with a "everything good? ok? see you at the end."

I always wonder just exactly "no rider left behind" and "sweep will be the last rider in" mean to other people, especially the organizers- and don't get me started on the distinctions between rollers and gently rolling terrain and gentl rollers. Take it all with a huge grain of salt, sauume the worst and hope for the best I guess.

marni
I have only been on 4-5 group rides at this point, and they were not billed as "training" rides. Generally speaking there have been quite a few riders, last week there were well over a hundred of us. Right now I am only riding between 13-15 mph outside of climbing, though sometimes I can get my LHT up to 17-18. That is slow - but I can keep it going for hours so am not too unhappy with that. It IS my first year and it is fast enough to finish the October brevet with time for breaks - one assumes I will be faster in two months time

It is good that I like riding alone, because that is what I do on group rides - and that doesn't bother me - I know I am slow. The ride leaders have all been very nice so far, and I've yet to find a closed SAG stop - and in one case they waited some time for me, bless them for doing that

I do not bother with the weekday evening rides. They post what average speed they ride at, and while one of them always says that "no rider will be dropped" I just can't imagine that I am fast enough to not REALLY slow everyone down. As far as hills are concerned - until I find my hill-climbing-beast they are ALL a challenge, so I just take what I find.