Originally Posted by
rower2cyclist
This is proper advice but incredibly hard in practice. There's nothing more satisfying than being a part of a good paceline where everyone's on the same page. I found out over the years that you need at least a dozen riders in a fast rotating paceline. Also, quality improves even more if everyone has similar fitness levels. My biggest pet peeve is someone less fit than the group average shows up to our Sunday group ride. That person drops like a rock on the slower side as soon as he completes his pull since he's likely on/over the limit. What happens is that creates a mess in the back of the slow lane people yoyoing. Is it a bad thing to ask that guy to stay off the back?
Yes. What you need to do is ask them to stay off the front, basically rotate off as soon as they get there. Keeps the paceline cohesion and they can usually hang with a draft. This is me a lot of the times when I'm out with higher category racers. If you're competent and just don't quite have the fitness this is what you do. Trying to take your turn at the front and blowing up doesn't help anyone.