LarrySellerz

Last tuesday i went on a club ride that ive done 4 times, there were about 75 riders and we were doing hills and regrouping between them. The hills were long and twisty and the roads very narrow, lots of blind corners. Pretty much impossible to pass safely. The problem was that cars would get stuck behind us for minutes, eventually getting frustrated enough to pass, thinking the group is much smaller than it is. Risking one blind corner to pass is one thing, but usually the pack is strung out over multiple blind corners and the car has to merge into the ride which cant be fun for anyone. There were two particularly egregious drivers that I saw, both fancy cars, and one of them narrowly avoided a head on collision trying to pass us. I was on a single speed and was jogging up the steep parts so as the caboose I tried to warn the cars not to pass, even going so far as to run in front of a frustrated car trying to go around the double yellow to pass another car and the ride.

I think while the cars were dangerous, our behavior is kind of obnoxious. Don't really know how it could be rectified though, these are not busy roads and maybe cars should just have to deal with waiting 5+ minutes behind cyclists climbing at 5 mph. There have been attempts to split the group up, but due to the regroups and generally high fitness level of the riders, the front group just gets brought back by people in the back. Enforcing a really slow roll is very obnoxious and comes with problems of its own. Do any of you know of massive group club rides like this? The renegade race training rides are much more courteous to traffic, but the nature of this hill climb ride doesn't really allow us to be. Egan Ride for any of you bay area folks.