After many years of bouncing around cycling clubs, racing, riding and help run them, that all came began to fade away after I closed my shop. The store rides that were established carried on in some capacity for a few years but I decided to officially end them in 2019. Since then I’ve never been affiliated with any club or been on a club ride but over the past couple of years I’ve yearned for a group ride occasionally and I’ve been keeping an eye on a few local clubs on social media to see if anything tempted me to rejoin the fold.
Droitwich CC had posted they were trialling a new A/B ‘quicker’ ride last Thursday so I asked if I could rock up to which I was welcomed with the standard ‘..you can ride with us 3 times..’ . It seems to be a common thing with clubs which I’ve always thought an odd position to take but thats fine and I thought I’d give it a go.
Fast forward to getting ready to go and I was nervous for some reason. Not sure why. A bit of pride, not wanting to be too slow and the unknown probably. It has been 5 years since my last club ride.
I left about 40 mins before the meetup time to give me time to get there (10 miles) but the headwind was quite strong so I was very well warmed up when I got there. There were a couple of other riders, one being Rob, a familiar face, from riding my Gravelton Events. A few more rocked up including the organiser for a total of around 8 of us.
They gave us a quick talk on what the plan was, call out hazards etc and asked if anyone was inexperienced at group riding and then we headed off into the lanes. For the first few miles two riders just rode on the front at a decent tempo to Crowle as there may have been riders waiting for us there. On the way the organiser had a word with me to stay back a bit (I think) despite him constantly riding out wide on the white line in front of me. Personally, I’m not comfortable that far out and prefer to ride in two lines as a group. Occasionally I did eek forward overlapping his rear wheel due to pack dynamics. Not sure what he said exactly as I didn’t hear but he clearly had no intention of coming back in line given the time he spent there and if he did all he had to do was just check and signal and I’d ease back if the gap wasn’t quite there. Standard group ride etiquette right? Perhaps he thought I was a newbie and that was why. Again fine, I just said ok.
After Crowle we rode as a single line down a narrow lane to Huddington which I lead and then when I rolled over at the junction another rider took over and then gunned it on the front. Further on at Flyford the road creeps up a long straight rise which tempered the speed a bit and for a moment I rolled through and another rider came through then that was it for pacelines. Over the top the group had split, no shouts to ease up and after that it was sit on the front and take it in turns to gun it. By Radford I was just fucked off with it and just sat up and let them crack on. I just don’t enjoy that style of testosterone-fuelled group riding.
A dropped rider, who was on their first ride with them too, caught up and we rolled along together for a bit. Up ahead it looked like the group had eased to wait for a bit but they did carry on and leave us. Probably a good job as I would have asked WTF was happening and upset someone. Not cool when you are the newbie.
At Wheetley a club rider was waiting to make our group 3. I began to work on the front. I felt quite strong so I towed them and eased on the hills constantly checking we stayed together. The club rider came through for a couple of turns and with a couple of miles to go the 3rd rider dropped off as I’d began to wind it up because I could see a dropped rider in the distance.
Now I know I sound like a bit of a cycling diva throwing my toys out of the club ride pram but I’m drawing on decades of experience here. I’ve been there countless times shouting at riders to stop half-wheeling and ease off so the ride is kept in check. I think I’m qualified to comment. To be fair to them, the ride was never advertised as a paceline but my argument is that a straightforward paceline would have been far better for all. We all sit in two lines rolling through and off in the 20’s. The fast guys can do longer turns, the less fit sit-on. You ease off on the hills to keep the group together. Quite simple really and, in my opinion, would have been much more enjoyable and overall, probably a little faster.
For the record, I’m guilty of being a dick too half-wheeling and making life difficult for other riders when I’ve been going well and felt good. #willywaver
As it turns out I realised I have more in the tank than I thought and rode the fastest 50 miles (10 miles there and back + 30 mile group ride) I’ve done in years averaging just shy of 20mph. So from that point of view, a great ride. It was just a shame the rest of it was a bit of a shambles.
Will I go again? Probably not. That style of ride is just not my thing and again, based on experience, it will kill what could be a great training ride for the Summer months.
