Every so often, I’ll ride a recreational group ride. I love the comraderie of cyclists, the talk, the last minute pumps of air, the clicking in, and the easy drifting out as a peloton. “I miss riding in a group,” I’ll think to myself.
The magic ends by mile 10. The group will surge, gap, and separate, only to regroup at every stop sign. I’ll hear fifteen repeated screams of “HOLE!” for every minor road imperfection. And then no mention of the actual hole. Some guy in front will set a PR for his 30 second pull. Wheels overlap, brakes are tapped, and some guy in the back will go across the yellow line and speed past the peloton for no apparent reason. A breakaway?!
I curse under my breath, remembering why I always ride with only a few friends. Doesn’t anyone else realize how dangerous this ride is? How bad it is for our reputation on the road? There are clear rules of ride etiquette, safety, and common sense. Does anyone here know the rules? Who is in charge?
But no one is in charge, and the chaotic group has no idea of how to ride together. As a bike lawyer, I get the complaints from irritated drivers, concerned police, controversy-seeking journalists, and injured cyclists. It needs to get better, but the obstacles are real:
First, everyone is an expert these days. The internet and a power meter do not replace 50,000 miles of experience, but try telling that to a fit forty year-old, new to cycling, on a $5000 bike. Or, god forbid, a triathlete. No one wants to be told what to do.
Second, the more experienced riders just want to drop the others and not be bothered. It is all about the workout, the ego boost, or riding with a subset of friends. But a group ride is neither a race nor cycling Darwinism. As riders get better, they seek to distinguish themselves by riding faster on more trendy bikes; but as riders get better they need to realize two things: 1) there is always someone faster, and 2) they have obligations as leaders. Cycling is not a never ending ladder, each step aspiring upwards, casting aspersions down. It is a club, and we should want to expand and improve our membership.
Third, different rides are advertised by average speed, but speed is only one part of the equation. This approach makes speed the sole metric for judging a cyclist, and creates the false impression that a fit rider is a good one. Almost anyone can be somewhat fast on a bike, but few learn to be elegant, graceful cyclists.
Fourth, riding a bike well requires technique training. Good swimmers, for example, constantly work on form and drills; so should cyclists. Anyone remember the C.O.N.I. Manual or Eddie Borysewich’s book? They are out-of-print, but their traditional approach to bike technique should not be lost. More emphasis was given on fluid pedaling and bike handling.
Before the internet, before custom bikes, and before Lance, it was done better. Learning to ride was an apprenticeship. The goal was to become a member of the peloton, not merely a guy who is sort of fast on a bike. Membership was the point, not to be the local Cat. 5 champ. You were invited to go on group ride if you showed a interest and a willingness to learn. You were uninvited if you did not. You learned the skills from directly from the leader, who took an interest in riding next to you on your first rides (and not next to his friends, like better riders do today). Here is some of what you learned:
To ride for months each year in the small ring.
To take your cycling shorts off immediately after a ride.
To start with a humble bike, probably used.
To pull without surging.
To run rotating pace line drills and flick others through.
To form an echelon.
To ride through the top of a climb.
To hold your line in a corner.
To stand up smoothly and not throw your bike back.
To give the person ahead of you on a climb a little more room to stand up.
To respect the yellow line rule.
To point out significant road problems.
To brake less, especially in a pace line.
To follow the wheel in front and not overlap.
The ride leader and his lieutentants were serious about their roles, because the safety of the group depended on you, the weakest link. If you did not follow the rules, you were chastised. Harshly. If you did, you became a member of something spectacular. The Peloton.
I was surprised by this article. The group riding you describe is not the group riding I recall from 30 years ago, when I road with touring clubs all over the US. This specific advice about riding in a peloton is applicable to racers’ training rides. It seems to have little to do with bicycle touring, which comes very close to being a lost form of recreation, if not an art.
The Greenville Spinners, in South Carolina, like most touring clubs of bygone times, would feature multiple rides every weekend, with maps and cue-sheets, to various destinations. RIders would chat amiably, maintain no more than two abreast, regroup as appropriate, and perhaps stop at a country store for refreshments. Much of the interest was in exploring new places to ride and enjoying the scenery.
Now riders follow the same routes over and over, with a primary emphasis on training, and the kind of touring I describe occurs only a few times a year, regarded as a special occasion.
Always a good read this time of year as the group rides start to pick up again! Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/VfVFJ3sK
@VeloDoc: Always a good read…Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/07RYNiSh Should be required reading in CA year round!
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/atunf5ol This is great stuff
Hits the nail on the head re group rides – http://t.co/TeckFnNj
Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? http://t.co/9V4NAndS
Thank you for sharing, Mark. Good stuff. “@the622realm: Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? http://t.co/ulYJhxYp”
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/5cURlvN9
Riding in groups. Still good info. http://t.co/sCBQg9D5
Nice post – couldn’t agree more with most of it. I suspect certain groups of riders stay together for the same reasons we hang out with our friends while shying away from others – whatever those things are.
It’s a good thing that we are not all alike, ride alike, train alike, eat alike, etc. etc. etc…. makes life interesting (even if is is sometimes exasperating!)
Thanks for writhing this though – I enjoyed reading it.
Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/C4xGG3Vg
The group ride: http://t.co/8OP40Unw
@spinpizza
This is a great read as cycling season is getting closer! Thanks RodRT @rodambelang The group ride: http://t.co/1Cf9YYTB
I recognized this problem when it was developing and I was coaching the Los Angeles Racing Team more than 25 years ago. I watched as it continued to get worse and finally wrote an e-book, “A Better Way To Train”, to help bring back this “lost art” and teach much more. There is an entire section in that e-book titled, “Professional Riding”, which teaches the lost art of riding in a peloton with just a few hours of reading. It is designed to help increase riding safety,efficiency, save some skin, and increase fun and is the equivalent reading material of a regular how-to-book for cycling AND it was written by one of those old guys with lots of experience (63 next month.) The art isn’t lost, you can find it at my web site, http://www.coachcarl.com, along with a lot of other helpful information, some of it free. AND you don’t have to spend years learning this lost art, all you have to do it spend a few hours reading and then practice what it teaches.
All riders can benefit from the written words in this article. http://t.co/xafQTgbn
Wow. Pander much, people? This is nonsense. Living in S. Florida gives one the opportunity to ride in all manner of group ride dynamics. There are the hammerhead rides that push you to the limits of your speed and endurance, but stop at lights and try to follow road rules mostly. There are the little old lady group rides. There are social, let’s stop and eat in the middle of the ride, groups, and there are the nasty, every man for himself, F road rules, “What light?”, hang on for dear life while your heart is leaping out of your chest or get dropped halfway into the ride, group ride – which is my absolute favorite. So pick your poison, but for Me sake (I’m a biking god in my own mind) stop the bitching and whining, Nancy. No one is forcing you to ride in a group you don’t like to ride with.
The lost art of the group ride http://t.co/KPH6Rikv #cycling #biking #cyclist
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/m9YqBHcW
James Miller: Have you buried any bicyclists? Been to their funerals? Peter has, and he knows what he is talking about. It is literally a matter of life and death. And short of that, I think Peter’s message is that the ill-behaved groups that apparently are more prevalent outside your region are spoiling the enjoyment of group riding. My takeaway is that more experienced group riders should speak up and should be mentoring those who are coming along; and they should not allow anarchists to hijack rides and ruin the experience for everyone else.
By the way, “whining” is a lame and inarticulate way of saying you just don’t like what someone else says.
It’s not about “liking” what was written, I just think he’s wrong. This is a cry baby, “get off my lawn” article, pure and simple. You can’t make everyone do things the way you think they should be done – or the way they “used” to be done. People die biking all the time – even ones who are “doing it right”, so that’s a moot point used only for shock value. If you don’t like the group you’re riding with – change your group. It really is that simple. Ever raced before? It’s organized chaos and very dangerous. Some of these group rides emulate racing ON PURPOSE because the people in the group are training to race. If that’s not what you’re looking for then move on, don’t complain about it.
I live and ride in SoFla as well. James’ attitude is exactly what the author is referring to and is indicative of racers that don’t know how to train and don’t have an ounce of common courtesy for other vehicles and pedestrians, nevermind the peleton’s safety. We have a group of riders that keep a fast, rotating paceline and obey lights and watchout for each other on dangerous roads. Our goal is to ride as a group and not drop as many people as possible (we actually will regroup on certain turns). We ride harder on weekends and, as wimpy as it sounds, we actually go easier during the week to recover. The riders that James hangs out with ridicule us. Yet, very few of them can stay in our rotation for 3 hrs straight. They sit-in a pack of 80 riders, 4 across with over-lapping wheels, then attack at a road obstacle. Because… they cannot separate a group ride from a race. It’s a selfish group riding style. The problem we have is that these James types come to our ride because it is so consistent and “clean” and then they pull the same stunts as on “their ride”. When you ask them to either respect our ride or find another ride, they get pissed and further ridicule us. Why come to a “real” group ride if you want James’ “organized chaos”? The only thing worse is when they bring their TT bikes to your group ride and try to prove how strong they are, staying in the aero bars in the paceline and accelerating the front any time they rotate. And, their favorite line, like James, is “shut-up and ride”.
Excellent article and unfortunately so true.
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/SyRNMoUN
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/L6WJX1jA
i, as a new rider, went on a bike ride with a cycling group here in The Woodlands, TX and was totally turned off by them…all they wanted to do was go out fast and ride hard and it was totally unenjoyable. I don’t want to pander around, I definitely want to ride consistently, but with nice people who talk once in awhile…after all, if I wanted to ride by myself I would. But that’s why it is called a ‘group’ ride, is it not? No one talked to me or acknowledged that I was a ‘new’ face. They all knew each other and kept to themselves and I remained an ‘outsider.’ I would love to find a group that would welcome me and make riding fun again.
“@AimeeTriathlete: The lost art of the group ride http://t.co/ZYjzraQL #cycling #biking #cyclist”
James Miller: if there are bad actors in a group, yes, one can bail out, but there is another choice. It’s called leadership. By speaking up and showing there is a better way, it is possible to change the group dynamics. If I don’t like the way a school is run, yes, I can transfer my child. But what does that do for all the other kids whose parents don’t have the resources or knowledge? Better to improve the school. If no one tries to change anything that’s less than the best, civilization just goes into a downward spiral. Leadership is not whining; it is showing there is a better way.
Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/WvLQ6M5f #cycling
@TomCayman good read http://t.co/vQAwY4Jo
A bloody men to that. Take note people. Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/LgKN0xdf
Very good. Take note @caymancycling “Lost art of the group ride http://t.co/MyYLNwyv”
Interesting article here, what do you think? Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/meJDPwgC
“@AtlantaCycling: Interesting article here, what do you think? Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/VJb5Ef7d” Sadly, all true.
Lost art of the group ride: http://t.co/P9hlgWzt
A lost art indeed. Some people need to take a deep breath.
http://t.co/fcBHvyXR
http://t.co/VRWNQfPg Thinking that the “team kit” guys need to peruse this…
Group ride rules as they were & should be: RT @MMinSC: http://t.co/Bh3CMaOo Thinking that the “team kit” guys need to peruse this…