preferdownhill

Ive been leading quite a few meetups and coming up against issues with groups with too wide range of fitness. Too fast leaves some behind and too slow makes more fit people less likely to sign up for the next ride. We do post speed targets but too many people overestimate their own level. I am using ride with gps to mark off long segments where people can test themselves and we will have group rides to measure our speeds (similar to how 5k races are done). I'm thinking about setting it up next year so we do it as a group 3 times, spring, summer, fall so people can meaure their own progess over the summer in addtition to determine their level for a group ride. For a couple reasons though, Ive been wondering if speed is the best measure of performance. I've been thinking (K)WH, or watt-hour might be a better measure. The problem with speed is it depends a lot on the route. Road surface, hillls, stop - restarts will change how much effort a route requires making comparisons between segments difficult. If one person with a power meter rides each segment at a moderate speed and a fast speed and determines the WH for the course, a rider without a powermeter just needs their speed for the course and can calculate their effective WH. These WH numbers can be then compared across courses and riders. Another thing i like about the WH is people can just make up a speed based on their gut feel but need to measure WH to get a reasonable number. Hopefully it will be possible to use an app to calculate the numbers as well.

johnny99

Most riders can estimate their speed pretty well on a flat route, but not on a hilly route. Near where our club rides often meet, there is one big hill (1300 foot elevation gain in 4 miles). Our club rides are rated by how fast you can climb that hill. 30 minutes or less is the fast group. 30-40 minutes is the medium group. 40 minutes or more is the slow group. Also, for club rides with a big turnout, we often split into a faster and slower group at the start (with leaders volunteering for each group and riders choosing which group to ride with).