I often mountain bike with 4 or 5 other gals and we are all at different skill levels. We find it best to all ride at our own pace. If it is a trail we don't know the faster gals will wait up at intersections. The purpose of riding together, yet apart is so we know someone is there to help out if one of us gets into trouble. The slow riders don't want to have to kill themselves trying to keep up with the fast and the fast ones don't get bored trying to keep their pace slow. We are all out there to improve our riding, not to chat and ride at the same time. We can talk when the ride is over. I can see this might not work out so well on a long distance road ride, but for 10 mile mountain bike trails it works very well.