burnthesheep

The things that make for good scenic and safe cycling routes are often diametrically opposed to the design of a route that can keep a "group" together.

So, I almost never do group rides as a roadie.

Rides that keep groups together:
-flatter
-fewer curves
-fewer turns, simpler route
-less stops

Rides that might be more scenic and safer:
-hillier
-more curves
-more turns, complex route
-more stops

Why is that? Well hills break up groups by both power and weight abilities. Next up, curves might be fun or scenic, but can havoc a larger group if there's a lot of them or they are tighter. Complex routes might lead folks to miss turns and take wrong turns and the group to split and get frustrated. But complex routes allow you to often take safer routes by bypassing busier or faster speed limit roads. More stops as in stop signs and lights aren't by design, but you encounter more often on a safer route because you're bypassing the busier dangerous stuff.

Local to me there's a couple group ride routes where I shake my head. I just won't go to them. Or if I do, I let a person know that I'm familiar with that I'll latch on or peel off to avoid the troublesome areas.

But, a huge one for all this is hills. Group rides tend to hate hills as to stay a true "all together no drop" ride, you are dictated by the slowest rider in that grouping.

That's my $0.02.

My personal road rides might have near 100 turns in a 60mi ride. I would think that would be a non-starter for most group rides. These turns connect me to parts of town or country in a manner to avoid high speed limits or high volume areas.