Am I being overly sensetive.

[jobob]

But back to the original post.

Ah, now I understand where you're coming from, Donna. It sounds like you're a bit between a rock & a hard place here.

It's really unfortunate that the group is too small at this point to offer a variety of rides. Odds are a group of riding buddies of similar abilities got together and decided to form a club.

Hopefully more beginners will join in over time and someone will be willing to lead some shorter rides. One thing that some of the clubs around here do is have a ride scheduled for a specific day each month (say, the first sunday of the month) where they have a "getting to know you" beginners/social ride, as well as other short rides other times in the month.

One possiblity is to try to get something like that going yourself. Maybe if others see that there is an active beginners group in the club (even if it's a group of one at the moment ) they might be more likely to join in.

[mimitabby]

yeah, don't any of those guys have wives that might ride if it wasn't such a hard pace??

[bcipam]

I belong to a large bike club (BCI). Although it is a social/recreational club, the riders are strong and experienced. We have several levels of rides but do not practice a "no drop" policy. It is very hard for a large group to do "no drop" especially if the group fitness level is mixed. My club provides a route slip and you are on your own to the coffee stop and then back to park. If you can hang with riders good, if not, keep riding until you can.

Not certain why you are upset or angry. He was honest enough to tell you the truth. I'm assuming he assessed your ability and knew you wouldn't be able to hang. I have done the same thing many times. Just this weekend I had to explain to someone that she should stay with our Saturday rides until her fitness comes up to the level of our Sunday rides. I rather say that then she come out and get mad because she gets dropped right off the bat. If your expectation is someone has to ride with you, then he was right to tell you what he did.

If you are OK to ride alone, at least until the stop - go out and do the ride. Asure the other riders you can find your own way so they can enjoy their own rides. You will earn their respect.

BTW my club does a "newbie" ride the first Saturday of each month. The ride is approximately 15 miles long, no hills (maybe an overpass) there is a lead and a sweep (or several). We also tie it to a training/safety class. We usually get around 15 people or so. All rides (short, medium, long and xtra long meet up at the same coffee stops for socialization. You might suggest he do that once a month. Maybe you can volunteer to lead or sweep it????

[amelia05]

I agree with the folks who say to lead your own beginner ride...that's what I did.

Our club had a beginner-friendly ride on Sundays that I enjoyed, but I couldn't always make it because of church obligations. All their current Saturday rides were too fast, so I just rode solo Saturdays every week. When they asked in one of the meetings for volunteers to lead a Saturday beginner ride and there were no more-experienced takers, I decided to go for it. I had no ride leader experience, and only a few months' group riding experience, but the group leaders from the Sunday ride were really helpful with my route planning and getting the ride started. There was a month or so when I didn't have any riders, but then they started to trickle in after that, especially as the weather got cooler. Another woman in the club tried my ride a few times and decided that it was too fast/long-distance for her, so she now leads an ultra-beginner ride that takes a shorter version of the same route. We all start out together, then the two rides split up at our different paces.

It's been over a year now, and I think it's one of the best things I've ever done. It's really helped me to feel part of the club in a way that I didn't before. I've met a lot of great people, seen a bunch of riders gain confidence and speed to move on to the faster rides. That's always kind of bittersweet...thrilled that they're moving on, but sad that they won't be riding with me every week anymore.

Anyway, all that to say that leading a ride is not at all hard...all you have to have is a a willingness to show up and ride every week (or every month, or whenever you schedule it), a little bit of basic riding/safety knowledge, and someone more experienced to help you get started and help advertise the ride. If the club truly is trying to bring in all kinds of riders, I'm sure that the club leader would be more than willing to help.