When I first started riding, I went out with a group of roadies and was told the same thing. I got dropped, on a climb, so one of the riders was sent back to help get me back to the group on some flatter terrain. I was having trouble holding his wheel and he yelled back at me “if you don’t stay on my wheel, I’m just going to leave you”. Years later, once I was a much stronger rider, he had to ask me to slow down as we were ascending a 2% grade. I wasn’t mean back to him, said nothing, and took quiet pride in the fact that I was now built up to be able to drop him if I wanted.
The early experience of him yelling at me made me feel so humiliated and I promised myself “I will never talk to another rider like that, especially a new one”.
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It’s always the same after a winter lay off. Most riders train hard through winter and come the club rides resuming, riders will always want to set the pecking order in their group for the rest of the summer.
It’s hard to ignore and difficult not to participate but don’t take it too seriously.
Club rides are always spicy for the first 20-30 minutes as most riders have been looking forward to the club ride for most of the day.
I’m 57 and still writing cheques by body can’t cash. But it’s fun trying!
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This thread is exhibit A why I never partake in group rides
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Depends on the type of “monster” pull…yeah, the guys who surge to the front and up the pace and then drift back again can blow things up. But the guy who goes to the front and keeps the same steady pace but takes a long-ass pull? Hero.
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True! Every once in a while, I get to be that guy, and it feels good. Most of the time, I’m enjoying the wind blockers in front of me
Exactly. Longer, not harder. And don’t surge unless it’s one of those testosterone-fueled wattage/wang measuring contests where everyone is trying to drop everyone (which I personally hate unless it’s a real race). The only thing worse than people who do big surges and disrupt a cohesive group are the guys who surge and then get immediately dropped and then expect a regroup. I’ll generally do what I can to help a rider stay attached, but at some point you can’t be an idiot. When someone surges off the front of our group, SOP is to let them go and those people will always die and come back to the group. Chasing the surges just make the group slower. My favorite saying when folks to that - “Don’t feed the animals”.
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AWESOME!!
I remember when I was learning the ins and outs of computers, and was flummoxed at the concept of ‘anonymous FTP’. I asked an employee at the FTP Software Company, and was slammed and told to give my computer away and have someone else do the heavy lifting for me’. I was gutted, but got over it rather quickly and swore that I would never be that much of a malignant ass to people trying to use computers.
But the number of people I ran into that were just as bad as that guy, or worse, was embarrassing. It’s like people just loved to be brutal to noobs, slamming them as ‘pbkac’, and 'ID10T’s. (pbkac = ‘problem between keyboard and chair’)
Share the knowledge…
And don’t drop the people really trying, as they might drop you in the future. (I was dropped out in the hinterland, and had no idea where I was, and couldn’t get a cell signal. I followed the sun, and eventually got to a signal and back to civilization. Yeah that was a ‘no-drop ride’ for sure there…
Hero pulls.
Best group rides are where there’s a ‘road captain’ in the bunch. Just someone with the personality to keep things in order. It’s a lovely feeling when you’re in a block of riders moving like a well oiled machine. One eratic bloke (it’s always a bloke) can disrupt the flow. My favourite captain will tell the group to let them go when someone heros off the front. We all have a chuckle and watch him die slowly in the wind. However we will reabsorb him with a friendly grin when he does.
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I prefer “picnic” (problem in chair, not in computer) 
Hadn’t ever heard that one before.
Reminds me of one of the earlier groups rides I did in my cycling journey.
I went on a ride with a group I had not been with before. It looked like they were going pretty fast. One guy I happened to be riding alongside kind of took me under his wing and gave me various sorts of advice and encouragement. Like I didn’t really feel confident riding that close behind somebody at the time and he was encouraging me to inch ever closer to that wheel in front.
After some whizzing along it was our time to pull. Again, he was encouraging me to go a bit harder than I otherwise would have, and then to go a bit longer when I asked whether we should perhaps switch by now. Well, I trusted he knows how things are done in here. So we pulled a bit more, and as we pushed up one hill, the rest of the group behind ripped to pieces with people shouting to slow the pace down.
As we stopped at the top of the hill and gathered everyone back together, the actual ride leader gave a lecture on how this is not the way to ride in this group 
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I’m in a club where it doesn’t really matter. Some go quicker than others, some rides quicker than others.
I’ve been off the back, been off the front. I mean, few years ago I never had any consistency due to back surgery and accidents so needless to say had some epic blowups on Tues nights, waddling into a petrol station looking for snickers and coke. Great times.
If anyone gave me a talking to for having a blast off the front to the coffee shop with a few I’d join another club.
We had that in a big ride this past weekend. Century ride in a city about two hours away so I didn’t really know anyone. Group started fairly large and the whittled down as people dropped off. We had a small enough group now so one of the guys suggested a pace line. One of the guys was really good about nicely telling people when they swung off too far from the front after taking their pull, or if they were going to hard up hills, etc…It was actually very nice and organized and was so much fun working in that manner so well.
I just did my first big group road ride on Sunday. A LONG ride - 200K (125mi) Brevet with a local Randonneur group, but it left a mile from my house and figured it’d be a good way to get out for a long training ride, and expected it to be coffee stop pace.
Now, it’s my own fault for wanting to see how fast the first group went, but dear god, the first 15-20 minutes these guys were laying down the hammer, I finally just let them all go. No way I could have maintained that power. Long story short though, got towed back to them 15-20 minutes later as they slowed down, and then throughout the day I watched people explode and fall off the back, and ended up finishing with the top group of 3 other guys who were really strong fit riders.
But, total mind games to start. People laying down the hammer and going out way faster than they should have.
With that said, was a BIG day. Yesterday was a 30 min snails pace recovery ride, today complete rest day. Still TBD how the legs will feel for an over/under workout tomorrow… In one sense, great training. In other sense - WTF were you thinking 
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