Help! Need to ditch slow neighbor! (long-ish)

[Trek420]

My guess is that she will be embarrassed and embarrassment can show up as huffiness.

One possibility is to ride with them but say you are going to push it a bit but you will wait for them at a certain spot. I sometimes ride with a friend of my husband's. He rides much, much faster than me. He will go up and down a hill as he waits for me. I am glad he does that because otherwise I would feel like I am holding him back.

When I ride with my cousin, I do the same thing. I tell her that I am going to push it up the hill because "I want to get the blood moving," and I either wait for her at the top or circle back around.

^ that. The only thing I dislike about cycling is the stratifying, dividing of people. I ride ___ distance at X speed with ____ amount of climbing, you ride _____ distance at x speed with more climbing, she rides _____ distance at x speed straight up a cliff. None of us can ride together.

As new cyclists their "oh, we ride that in about an hour" is not from the training standpoint we have. In training we think of the exact speed and time. A new or newer cyclist "about an hour" could be an hour or maybe two.

They also might not think of the hour as continual. They go out for "about and hour" which includes some breaks, getting started, rest etc. It might sound dry, exclusive and a bit catty but if you don't know the rider and are planning a ride "I'm doing 40 mile non-stop training rides averaging a speed of 18 mph". Be exact.

If you blow them off you may destroy what could become a budding love of cycling. If I was in their SPD compatible shoes or maybe it's KEENS I'd surely be turned off to both riding and cyclists.

When I ride with my cousin I climb at my slow but steady pace, he does hill repeats or even explores a side route while I get to the top. Ask them if they mind you doing that because you must train for the event.

There's obviously an interest in getting fit. Do they run, walk? If you're a runner you might literally do a run while they ride. That may inspire them to get a new bike.

Is there a bike club with an a no drop ride? Ask them if their interested and join them there. You get to ride at the front, they have a sweep. You see them at start and end, maybe the meal after. In a way yes, it's not fair that you're both leading and sweeping.

Lastly since they need to learn more about cycling including basic maintenance why not invite them here? They will learn a lot and maybe be able to join you next season on some early season training rides.

Just delete this thread first. because really it comes off a little catty and exclusive.