Understated Club ride descriptions

[Catrin]

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.

[OakLeaf]

I agree that "steep" is in the eye of the beholder, but this is one of those times that I think it would help to put some objective numbers in.

When I traveled to Dallas to do the Lone Star Ride with my sister, not a soul could tell me objectively what the terrain was like. Even my sister, who's ridden in lots of different terrain but really isn't familiar with the places I've ridden, could only tell me, "It's not flat...?" I considered bringing my old bike - just to give her a chance to get ridden. But the reason I don't ride that bike here is that my legs just won't drive the tall gears any more and I didn't want to bring her along and then be miserable at 60 rpm for 175 miles. As it turned out, I would've been fine - I don't think there was anything steeper than 6% or longer than a mile on the whole ride.

Now that the USGS has posted those topo maps though, we don't have to rely so much on ride organizers.

As far as putting the hazardous intersections on the cue sheets, we do that for our ride, and we "CAUTION" the road in advance, but those kinds of things are hard to really understand unless you've done them once before.

[Crankin]

I only ride with a group that I know... it took me a long time to find one that has people like me... not slow enough to be slow and not fast enough to be fast. Now we seem to be splitting into 2 groups, as the original members are getting older (like well into their 60s- 70s) and the young people like me who are in their 50s are faster. Again, I fall somewhere in the middle, but I tend to go out with the fast group on hilly rides (I can keep up better on these kinds of rides) and regular group on flatter/rolling ones. But, the key is that I know if they say it's a "very hilly" ride, I know exactly what they mean.
Just yesterday we were laughing our @sses off at the Trek Travel description of a "moderate" level trip.... 18 miles with 3300 ft. of climbing, 40 miles with 5,000 ft. of climbing! While, I could probably do this, I don't think it's moderate. The trip we did with them 5 years ago had several 12-15% grades, some of which were even challenging for my DH, because of the length. They told us about some of them, but not all. Maybe they think no one will come, if they tell the truth? Just tell me the grade and the length of the climb and let me decide.
And yes, some ride descriptions are definitely written by alpha male racers.

[JennK13]

http://www.deercreekchallenge.com/event_info.html
Not only should the title warn you that it's hard, and the fact that the elevation profile looks like an EKG print out, I haven't seen another ride that tells you what gearing you should have "Bike gearing for climbing - we recommend 39 on front and 28 on back, triple or compact."
They do a great job warning you, and most rides here do give you an elevation profile.
As for group rides, as a weekly group ride leader, some responsibility falls to the riders attending. Our store only has one ride a week, and we mix up the intensity, distance and climbs. Rides are posted on our blog, Facebook and the main company page in advance so people know what we're doing. While they are "no drop", and we do wait for the slower riders, there are those who really shouldnt be on certain rides yet. When it's just me and a partner with 15 people, if you cant make it and decide to go back, we cant leave our group for one person. I have friends who come and ride sometimes and I tell them "yes, you'll be fine" or like yesterday I told my buddy "hey, no shame in not coming today - we're doing some serious climbs"
We had one gal come on her hybrid, a new rider who had ridden once before with us. She enjoyed the company, but cant complete the routes yet. She gets to a certain point, cant go any more, thanks us for riding with her and goes back to her car. She learns something each ride, gets better, but knows her limits.
We aslo had a couple new ladies who told me at the shop that they were slow riders, but that they ride a lot. Yes, one of us hung back with them on the ride, but they had no problems whatsoever with the distance or climbs - they just averaged 12mph. My partner and I talk and strategize on the rides, one will lead the pack to a certain point where we can wait for the rest of the group to catch up. Works well for us, and everyone is safe and has a good time.

[Crankin]

Jenn, that's the way DH and I lead our rides. We do 25-40 mile rides, with some climbing. They are billed as intermediate level, with an average of 13.5-15. What usually happens is that there will be a faster cluster of riders behind DH, who is leading and a group that is about 2 mph slower, that I stay behind. DH waits at the top of bigger climbs so we regroup, or at designated points.
On one ride we lead, the "slower" contingent didn't show. I got caught at a light in the beginning and was struggling to catch up (it was an early season warm up ride and I definitely was not in the shape I am in now). They waited a bit and then DH slowed the pace... quite a few of these people struggled on the one big climb and after that, we stayed at a more moderate pace... until a rest stop when DH sort of took off. I just couldn't keep up. There was a headwind, too. But, since I was the sweep, it didn't matter. Normally, there would have been a group struggling in the back, and I seem to be able to coach people through this. In the end, I got back only a couple of minutes after the group, but I missed having the range of diversity on this ride.
Our rides are more "social," and we tell people this specifically, even if the pace is brisk. And most people say they love it and that it is a change from the usual club type rides.

[miamibiker]

Local LBS posts "Weekday Recovery Ride"----should have guessed when I was the only woman --hint, hint!!

Turned out to be a 26-28mph. Not sure who can "recover" at that pace??
I now refer to it as the "Roid Recovery Ride"

[OakLeaf]

Holy cr@p... what's the pace of their tempo rides?

[Veronica]

Turned out to be a 26-28mph. Not sure who can "recover" at that pace??
I now refer to it as the "Roid Recovery Ride"

How far do they ride that fast? That's like pro peleton pace.

Veronica

[marni]

Local LBS posts "Weekday Recovery Ride"----should have guessed when I was the only woman --hint, hint!!

Turned out to be a 26-28mph. Not sure who can "recover" at that pace??
I now refer to it as the "Roid Recovery Ride"

roid recovery or delusions of adequacy, (ducking and running)

[azfiddle]

I find it very helpful to preview the ride using ridewithgps, if I the route is available beforehand. Seeing the elevation profile in advance gives me a much better sense of what to expect.

Two of the clubs that post a ride schedule use rating systems: flat, minor hills, moderate hills, steep hills, long climbs or very steep for one, and FF-Fairly Flat, LH=Little Hills, MH=Medium Hills, BH=Big Hills for the other.

[OakLeaf]

The biggest club around here uses Terrain Degree of Difficulty (TDD). But it's one of those things that they've been using forever, and if anyone else uses it - or if they say how it's calculated - I haven't been able to find it.

I should just ask.

[bcipam]

Our ride coodinator was this thin, gnarly, sinewy guy that regularly rode across the USA. To him there was no such thing as hills or mountains. One of my favorite ride description was something like "43 miles, X to Y, one hill".

At least he acknowledged the 28 mile mountain climb (approximately 6500') as a hill.

We all learned it was best just to know the area so if you were going from point A to B you knew it was hilly.