Juan Foote

I have ridden on group rides before, but it has been over a year when I was riding last time. I pushed myself too hard trying to ride a "B" pace group and hurt myself. I took some time off and am about to get together with a C pace group as a motivational tool to continue riding. I have a few questions concerning etiquette in such a group.

When I rode with the B groups before it was laid out before I joined the group that I would not/could not pull on the front. I told them that I would ride off the front a little most of the time and only draft on the back from time to time. The groups I rode with had no issue with that, so the main point being I have not ridden in a paceline outside of friends that I know really well. Given that many C rides are beginners anyway, does a ride like that even do a paceline? Should I expect these folks to know where to ride in relation to the road and one another?

mkadam68

All answers on your questions will have some assumptions because, well... we don't know. Perhaps the better person to ask would be a club member/ride leader. In that regard...

Well, I would hope for the best, plan for the worst. Ride carefully and more to the back at first. Protect yourself. Watch how they ride, then you can decide how much you can trust them.

Yes, almost all group riders (at least those who have experience in group rides) will ride in a paceline. However, the paceline may be a pretty loose description for what you may see. Some differences I would expect to see: the space between wheels will be greater, the speeds will be slower, the number of riders will be fewer, and the socializing & conversation would be more.

Juan Foote

I am actually hoping that will be the case as it concerns the socializing. The pace on this ride is really low, so I am guessing that it will present good opportunity to talk to one another and whatnot. I didn't know if anyone who normally rides in a C pace group might be able to comment about their particular groups habits in regards to my questions.

mkadam68

It entirely depends on the group. I'm in California, others are in Canada, some are in Britain... Each local group may have different flavors. So anything we say may not apply in your case. Just make sure you know how to ride in groups (or at least the basics of it) and you should be fine regardless.

1855Cru

In my local velo club there is a big difference between B and C group rides. Apart from being slower, the C rider tend to have a much wider range of skill, speed and endurance. So you typically end up with loose group riding rather than true paceline riding and a lot of re-grouping, normally at the top of every hill. Avg speeds tend to be 15-16 mph over 30-35 miles and they are normally nice conversational rides.

The B group rides are much faster, typically 18-20+ mph avg and the riders have more similar capabilities. Ths group rides a true paceline with everyone rotating forward to take a pull. There is almost no stopping to regroup as the line stays together except maybe on the steepest hills. It's only conversational during the warm up/cool down parts of the ride.

I have started riding with the B group and much prefer these rides. The frequent long stops on the C rides were irritating and never seemed to get into a rythym like I do on the B rides.