My Road CLub is very large and over the years the membership direction has changed depending on the club officers. These last 3 years, the direction has been towards racing and hammering and forgetting the true purpose of the Club. I ride less and less with them (and I am the membership director - go figure) and more with other groups.

One of my pet peeves is that several of our rides have been sponsered as "no drop" but the leader (who is also the Club president) basically would halt the lead group, see no riders behind and take off when the majority of the group was still behind although if he would wait at least 2 - 3 minutes most would have gotten there. It's angered alot of folks and we have been losing membership.

He "retires" this year (basically he found some poor woman to marry him and doesn't ride much anymore) and the new president hopefully will drive the Club back to what it was several years ago. We will see.

Basically I'm okay riding without the no drop policy. I usually have 1 - 3 buddies with me and it's less hassle than a whole gang of folks. If a ride is advertised as "no drop" make sure you ask what the leaders concept of that is. If 15 people start out, will he/she make sure 15 people regroup before the group takes off again. That's a true no drop ride.