Funny new guy (rude new guy) needs to have a talking to. And if he sprints off, watch him go. If he wants to ride with the group, then he needs to honor the group's "rules".
I like the idea of taking the next turn too.
Have you talked to the other riders in your group, to see how they feel about FNG's riding skills?
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Thread: Opinion needed re: group riding
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10-23-2008, 10:16 AM #1
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Beth
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10-23-2008, 10:41 AM #2
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The thing is that this isn't a new guy. He has been riding with this group for a couple of years. It's just that now that he is stronger he does this sort of thing. The fast guys and girls in the bunch just can't let him go...I guess it's an ego thing. I know that a couple of others feel the way I do but none of us want to say anything. The guy is pretty condescending to the women riders...acting like he has to protect us, tells us where to ride behind him to get the draft (like we don't know anything), won't ever let the girls pull on the fun sections of the route, etc. Saying something is probably futile because I think this may just be part of his personality and I do think of him as a friend even though some of the things he does/says gets on my last nerve!
As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence." ~Benjamin Franklin
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10-23-2008, 11:08 AM #3
Head up. Shoulders down.
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Sounds like the group is ready to split into an A and B ride.
Originally Posted by li10up
A for the chest-thumping ego-maniacs who want to rip the legs off each other.
And B for the rest of the people who remember the joys of a group ride and its own inherent challenges.
Run that one up the flag pole and see who salutes the idea.
p.s. I find that guys on a group ride fall into one of three categories: (A) they hit on you, (B) they ignore you, or (C) they act like they're your big brother and are out to protect you.2007 Seven ID8 - Bontrager InForm
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10-23-2008, 11:18 AM #4
Sue
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I like the idea of dropping back to the slower group and helping *them* rejoin, if you don't want to do the diplomacy thing yourself. If it's happened more than once and nobody's joined you in "no man's land," have you tried announcing that you're going to drop back to the other group so that the group stays closer together and can regroup more readily, as in the old days? Could be a human or two has only seen you drop off when it was a little too late...
(Edited to un-hijack and make it a new post
)
Last edited by Geonz; 10-23-2008 at 01:10 PM.
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10-23-2008, 11:36 AM #5
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I saw this happening a lot on our club rides this past summer... The way I broke them of the habit on the rides I lead was to let them go up the road, while kept the rest of the pack together. As soon as we came to a convenient crossroads, the pack turned off the planned course and took an alternate route to wherever our destination or turnaround point was going to be. The "bunny rabbits" will get lonesome after awhile, and start looking for the pack to come up behind them... especially if it's an unfamiliar route to them and they start getting those niggling little feelings that they may have missed a turn somewhere.
When they finally caught up to us, they were pretty docile ;-)
Many groups, including mine, have a standing rule that if you run off and leave the group like that, you're no longer part of the ride, and you're on your own. It takes a fairly strong ride leader to hold things together so that everyone has a good time. Many clubs have gone to a "leaderless" ride format to avoid saddling folks with the adminstrative burden of being a ride leader, but this is one example where the ride leader idea pays off.
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10-23-2008, 11:40 AM #6
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Maybe I'm letting my ego get in the way. I have had to work my butt off to finally be able to hang with the faster people on this ride only to have someone mess up the dynamics. I don't WANT to go back to the slower group....my goal is to get faster, not slower. There are several other rides that I "babysit" the slower riders (heaven knows I need to return the favor), but this is one ride I want to do for me. Now my friend, the knucklehead, messed it all up!
Umm...another thing...he IS the ride leader. He wasn't before but the other guy had to back out so.....Last edited by li10up; 10-23-2008 at 11:44 AM. Reason: had to add the ride leader thingy
As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence." ~Benjamin Franklin
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10-23-2008, 12:21 PM #7
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+1 Originally Posted by 7rider
In fact, on one of the Saturday no-drop rides back home, they had to split the "fast" group into 2 groups for reasons like this. Some guys just wanted to hammer all the time. I was home a couple weeks ago, and since it's October, they tried to calm the fast group down and make it one large group again. Of course, about of them went all out as we made it through the last stretch of stoplights. I found myself behind a group who decided to stop pedaling and chat. I saw the hammerheads up the road split into 2 groups. I bridged up to the 2nd group and then (b/c I was flying) decided to keep on going and try to get to the lead group. I wound up in no-man's land, which quickly turned into massive-headwind-land. I was stuck. As I sat up for the 2nd group to catch me, my legs blew and then I couldn't even catch on to that group again. The ride leader meant well in trying to go back to the winter rules of the ride, but it didn't work. I wasn't the only one dropped, either. Far from it. I did wind up catching most of the 2nd group eventually, and all of us finished only about 5min back from the leaders. Seems pretty silly for a no-drop ride. If only there hadn't been a massive, group-splintering surge, we could all have hung together at a normal pace no problem.
When it's just an individual going crazy, in my experience, it's been quite easy for the group to just let him/her go. Sometimes, one person who is a bit stronger will go for a while just to give the other a hard time of it.
If he's going to ride like that, he shouldn't be the ride leader. Yeah, he should make sweeps at the back, but not because he's blown himself up. He should also work to control the pace at the front so that it is whatever the ride is supposed to be. Originally Posted by li10up
If you can't get through to him or the group, then I suggest you try to restructure the ride into an A and B. That doesn't necessarily mean that only the people you want to ride with will do the A group. Hopefully, this time of year there will be some people who don't want to basically go out and race and contest all the sprints every weekend.
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10-23-2008, 12:39 PM #8
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Like everyone else, I think that talking to him/the group would be best.
However, being the perpetual smartass, I propose that as soon as he blows up & starts to drop back, "one of the girls" (gigantic eye-roll for that phrase) should counter-attack the bejezus out of him & drop him like a hot spider
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10-23-2008, 01:13 PM #9
Sue
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Welp, that's not letting it get in the way... that's you wanting to be a better rider. Might there be somebody else in the slower group that coudl spring up to halfway with you so you could ride together and push to get all the way to being able to drop the whole mess of 'em? Originally Posted by li10up
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