Quick question

[Geonz]

Do the fast folks resent the slow ones?

It depends :-) Here's what I've seen from the front end, though usually if I'm there I'm totally focused on keeping up... but in the parking lot before and after...

If they've dropped them, no. They just don't matter.
Resent... probably not the right word for it. Sometimes there's impatience, especially if somebody is out there going slower than everybody else, and they've been riding for a while and they're just not getting faster. (I try to figure that the person not getting faster is **more** frustrated by that than a newbie, and sometimes it works ;-)). Sometimes it's just arrogance. Slow people aren't worthy of our concern.

Some resentment if somebody's out on a fast ride on a slow bike - where if they'd just get those bloomin' thinner tires they could keep up fine, but somehow they don't really believe that.

Some resentment if the person is a WHINER. As in, put the energy into your pedals!!!

Some resentment becuase they can't really believe anybody *can't* go at that easy pace they were doing. This is the one that drives me nuts. If you're slowing down to 15 and think you're being so all-fired nice, why the *(*&( can't you just slow the rest of the way down to 14????? No, you TEASE people, and then you're all impatient because you're chomping at the bit. THey want to nominate me for sainthood for being able to do it (ride with slow people). Shift that "wannagofastwannagofastwannagofast" thing in your mind and tell it to come back tomorrow. (It's easier to do if you have a "goslow" bike, well, and you don't have that need to DO YOUR BEST all the time. Sometimes a lazy demeanor is a good thing :-) because sometimes it really isn't about YOUR BEST)

And sometimes it's defensiveness - if you've sworn your group doesn't drop anybody, but um, you just did, then you have to find a reason for it. So it must be the slow rider's fault, somehow. However, fact is that it's at least physically easier for a fast person to ride slowly than for a slow person to ride fastly.