Chandne

I start out on my own, like most. Eventually, I find people on long climbs who are about the same pace and then I become a bit chatty. I have actually made friends that way. Usually I lose some on the long descents, and sometimes find new friends on the next long uphill. I am fine riding on my own though I do prefer to chat on climbs. I think cyclists seems to be interesting and friendly in general, especially in these events. My next road event is the Copper Triangle- 80 miles and 6500 ft. That one tends to attract many who love beautiful mountain scenery and like taking it easy over 4-6 hours. A few teams pretend it is a race or a fast training ride, but most of the others treat it as a social ride.

RGMN

It's not just the riders on these events that are a boneheads, some of the volunteers are downright dangerous.

Locally there is a large event that uses many of my favorite routes. I usually avoid the area the day of the event, but a few of times I've ended up on the route as the event was going on. Every time I've ended up on their route I've had some overzealous volunteer try to "direct" me to someplace I didn't want to go.

One time they were pulling the riders off onto the shoulder and then as a group have them cross the road to head the wrong way down a one-way street. I was continuing on down the road, but a volunteer ran out into the road to make sure I got with the group. He was so far out in the road I had to choose to either ride into oncoming traffic or to hit him. I hit him. Hard. After I got done yelling at the volunteers with a long string of fn-heimers the officer that was there to direct traffic reminded the volunteers that they couldn't attempt to stop anyone.

Another time a volunteer actually chased me down and tried to force me off the road in his pickup truck because I "missed" the turn. Dumb-dumb couldn't believe that there would actually be other cyclist out that weren't participating in the event. My understanding is that the guy was still perplexed and didn't understand what he did was wrong after the police talked to him. (I had phoned his license in.)

Another time I pulled up to a traffic light and saw a whole bunch of riders coming from my right and turning down the route I planned on taking. I asked the one of the officers there if this was the event route, he said yes, so I decided to double back on the route I had just taken. About a mile down the road a car pulled off in front of me. As I went by the car door flew open and the some woman started screaming at me that I was going the wrong way. Since I had my camera on that ride I sent the video to the police and the event organizer. The police responded by saying they talked to the woman about attempting to injure a cyclist by dooring them but that was about the most they could do. The event organizer defended her actions saying they work hard to to prevent their participants from getting lost during the event.

WhyFi

^^^Tour de Tonka?

Bald Paul

Maybe next time pin on a warning?

RGMN

Yes

PeteHski

Thankfully this kind of thing does NOT happen in the UK. Volunteers will certainly not chase you down, even if you are in the event. They generally only assist if you ask them to. This kind of behaviour sounds frankly ridiculous.

rubiksoval

Event rides are like races in which it doesn't really matter if you "win" because there's usually nothing to sprint to. So go as fast as possible without dropping the other people pulling, and then call it a day.

WhyFi

Yeah, the last organized ride that I've done was the TdT a handful of years ago. I was surprised with how many people they had volunteering; I can see how they'd be a pain trying to shepherd you if mistaken for one of their flock.

PeteHski

The events I do are billed as a personal time challenge, not a race against other riders. So you typically get a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum award depending on your finish time, which are usually in one hour increments. So it might be sub 7 hours for Platinum, sub 8 hours for Gold etc. So only worth sprinting at the end if you are right on the time cut (if you actually care). I usually try to ride my own pace while making best use of groups as and when they form. On flatter rides I might be prepared to burn a few matches early on to stay with a fast group. While on more mountainous rides I stick more strictly to my own pace to avoid blowing up!

Noahma

i generally do BikeMS every year, and its a social ride for me. Gives me a chance to catch up with my team mates, and others like myself who ride with MS. I do have my eyes on a couple other rides for this next year (Crooked Gravel, Tour of the Moon, and Elephant Rock) 2 of the 3 I are either dedicated Gravel rides or have a gravel option. None of my friends ride Gravel, so I would be doing them solo, and I plan to just do them in a relacing manner. The road one I will probably talk a couple friends into joining.

Andy Somnifac 

Me? I don't. There are enough roads around where I don't personally feel the need to pay to ride a specific set of roads on a specific day.

Perhaps it would be different it was an exotic route that was usually closed to cycle traffic, but that's really about it.