Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Thanks for the reminders of why I love solo riding, and hate paceline. Not a big fan of regimentation--to me it's more like working on a factory assembly line than recreation.
No knock on you who like it, it's just not for me.
I have the same inclinations, but TBH in my experience, the people posting on this forum are far more neurotic about pacelines than people you actually encounter in a paceline.
Don't do anything truly stupid or dangerous, and nobody is going to yell. If you can't keep up, people will quietly sprint past to fill in gaps (if they can) on a drop, or regroup later on kind of ride. If they can't, well, they should be faster. And since they need to be faster, picking up the pace to close a big gap, or hanging on for deal life at the back of a line after bridging a gap is the kind of stuff that makes you faster.
If truly the only goal is to go as fast as possible while expending as little energy as possible, just buy a motorcycle...