On the topic of this thread: I always enjoyed bicycling with my family members at a leisurely pace to accommodate our children’s pace. For longer sessions of bicycling, I prefer to do it alone. In my younger days (at the approximate age 15-25), it was fun to go with close friends and push ourselves. But beyond that age, I didn’t really care about going in groups and having to deal with a few control freaks - in my limited experience, there were always a few or at least one in every group.
Setting my own pace and stopping or not stopping anywhere on a given day became increasingly important and enjoyable over the years and it remains so today.