Weekend Rides Are GROUP Rides!
Coach-Rant ON
The weekend rides, especially the Saturday ride, is a group ride. It’s not a hammer fest. It’s not the time to be testing your race legs, your fitness, or the fitness of your club mates.
Here are the important group riding etiquette points everyone needs to remember:
- Half-wheeling is not necessarily dangerous, but it is poor cycling etiquette. Do not ride faster than the rider beside you 😉 A sign of experience is an ability to ride the pace of weaker riders in the group, not just full throttle. If you are feeling strong take a longer pull on the front rather than a faster pull.
- Usually we ride in a social double paceline. Ride 2-up, side-by-side, and you can chat with the rider beside you. Don’t half-wheel (see the above)! On the front, each rider will drop back along the same side that they have been respectively riding. The left rider drops to the left. The right rider to the right. Make a clear hand signal to the riders immediately behind to indicate you’re letting them come forward.
- Don’t let a gap open ahead of you. Do your best to maintain the group speed. Don’t accelerate hard to close a gap, as this usually opens up more gaps behind you and/or you can overrun the wheel ahead of you. Either gently accelerate before the gap becomes enormous or shout, “Pace!” which is a common expression to tell leading riders to back down their riding speed. If you hear the word “Pace” or some variation, it means you’re riding much too hard on the front and people are getting dropped. Ease up and keep the group together.
Also, if the group speed is, say, 30kph on a flat road … that does not mean the pace stays at 30kph on the hills, be they small or large hills. Maintain your approximate effort on the hills. Hold your heart rate and/or power output in a similar zone while on the hills as on the flats. Same goes for the efforts into any headwinds. Save the surges and attacks for the track session on Monday, the hill circuit on Wednesday, or your own intervals workouts whenever and wherever you are adding them to your weekly plan.
Perhaps our members also don’t understand the limits of the club insurance policy. If the ride has no Ride Leaders, who will take responsibility to not leave people behind and lost on the route, and if the group does not make reasonable efforts along the way to re-group, then everyone’s insurance coverage becomes null and void for the group ride. It’s a liability issue for the club.
When myself or any of the Club Executive is not at a ride to take charge as Ride Leader(s), please be kind, step forward, and decide who will be the Ride Leaders that day.
8 riders is about the maximum size for a group. Split yourselves into at least 2 and possibly even 3 groups, according to the strengths of the riders. Check your ego. The faster group leaves first. And then keep those groups together. If you are finding yourself over your head in the current group, at the next re-grouping spot tell the Ride Leader you’ll be dropping back to the next slower group.
No one gets left behind by accident. You’ll only be left behind if you tell the group it’s fine with you.
If we don’t make concerted efforts to ride together and support each other on our group rides, the camaraderie that Velocity has been known for over the years will be lost. People will stop coming to our rides. Membership will collapse. Like anything related to reputation in life … it takes years to build up a good reputation but it usually takes only one stupid move to destroy all of the goodwill.
Coach rant OFF
Saturday Ride
Head to the Ardrossan Rec Centre at 11am again this week for our Saturday circuit of about 66kms up to Fort Saskatchewan and back. Find the ride route here:
Sunday Ride
Arneil will lead the group for a clockwise circuit of last week’s 104km route. Leave at 9am from the Tim Hortons on Tamarack Road. Find out where that is and what 104km route Arneil has planned for the day:
Tuesday MTB Ride
Look for Justin and join him on the river valley trails at 6pm Tuesday, departing from Capilano Park.
Wednesday Hill Circuit
Join us for another road ride to stretch your climbing legs. This week we will meet at Emily Murphy Park at 6:30pm.
Velocity Criterium
More help is still needed to host our criterium on Sunday, June 8. Take a look at where you can help out on our Volunteer Signup Sheet.
Full race day details and the Tech Guide are at: