Psimet2001 

I don't disagree completely but I'd posit that times have changed. Let me see if I can summarize what I am thinking:

1. Group rides are not as easy to find as they used to be. In our continually more "disconnected by constant connection" world is resulting in fewer group rides than before and with current ongoing covid issues fewer and fewer people are wanting to "try" group rides now. While I personally returned my group ride back to a thing that happens last year I know of about 4 other group rides that were in the same area that have disappeared completely or become impossible to find out about. Finding groups used to be a lot easier - go into a shop and talk to people about racing. Right now most other shops in the area don't race, have a team or club, or sometimes even know about racing anymore. We do and thankfully a lot of shops send wannabe racers with questions over to us. ...but this all depends on that racer being extroverted enough to seek out the information and knowledge first hand and be willing to travel to shops that might not be next door to learn about this underground "group riding" thing.

2. New racers are "Novice" *cough "cat 5" Cough*. There's always a bunch of people who say, " folks do not care for the chopper showing up with a year of Zwifting under their belt and causing a pileup while divebombing a corner or chickening out and taking out half the group." or something along those lines. Reality of the situation though is that usually the people that complain about that aren't racing in any category that has "novice" racers in it. The other Novice racers get used to it pretty quickly or get used to seeing and identifying it quickly. Those of us "Pro" cat 4's who are continuously grouped in with Novice/5's just live with the inevitability that this is what happens from time to time. The reality of the situation seems to play out that there are few instances where it actually happens in novice/5 races. It seems to happen way more frequently in the crash 3's - enough power to have won some races off the front yet still young, dumb and invincible enough to think they need to stick their nose in where it doesn't fit.

3. Because Novice racing is such a crap shoot there is such a huge variation of abilities in the same field. You may have a zwifted out the yinyang newb who can develop insane power but can't handle their bike.... and if he doesn't crash himself in the first corner then he's going to be so far off the front that his handling isn't an issue. Just as frequently you can have someone that can't handle their bike but is popped or off the back almost instantly. I've also watched people who raced for years who just can't handle their bikes as well.

So I guess I would posit that while group riding skills seem like a no-brainer, it's no longer so much of a pre-requisite as more of "on the job" skill training that is picked up by most fairly quickly and the risk that doing that poses isn't nearly as large as what people want to remember, think of, or get nostalgic about. I mean let's get real here - these fields are so much smaller than most realize. We spend so much time on the internet trying using tactics of fear in some sort of twisted "scared straight" style of knowledge campaign that it becomes a sort of form of gatekeeping.

In its current form I can not remember a time during my life where racing has been as safe as it is now. We can point fingers at causes. Less people racing - better courses - more training, whatever. I personally have had to fill out fewer post event forms. Seen less ambulance calls, etc. It is imperative that we really step out and grab anyone who even remotely expresses an interest in racing and get them to toe the line. I think we need to drop most of the obstacles or realize that the fears we have just aren't as bad now as they used to be.

All this said - if someone reading this is thinking about racing and has time to kill and doesn't get too overloaded with information and get discouraged then by all means please go read the thread in the racing forum. There is so much great information out there. Don't let it get to you though. At the end of the day you're just a person riding a bike. You want to test yourself then YES - do it.