Viewing 8 posts - 41 through 48 (of 48 total)
  • Roadies, how many crashes in your club?
  • 2tyred
    Full Member

    BigDummy + another 1.

    Used to be folk new to the road would come along, ride with a slower group and get to grips with how to ride in a group, before getting fitter and more confident, maybe enter a race or two, then start riding with the fast group as an essential part of training for that racing.

    More common now is new folk getting the fitness on their own then coming along and straight away feeling the slower group is too slow for them and jumping straight in with a fast group instead. Problem is they haven’t picked up the skills first so make the whole thing sketchy for everyone.

    There’s perhaps an age aspect to this – many riders are coming to the road for the first time as an adult, rather than as a young person, and aren’t as receptive to instruction.

    There’s also definitely a gender aspect. Advertise a coaching workshop for female riders to coach bunch skills in a suitable environment, and you’ll have a full complement of riders signed up very quickly. Set up the same thing for male riders (or more accurately, don’t specify gender) and NOBODY wants to know. Why is that?

    TiRed
    Full Member

    It is always easy to spot riders who are not comfortable in a group. Normally it is close wheel following, or leaving three or more bar widths between lines in through and off. I coach my groups to ride one and a half bars apart, frequently remind them, and encourage riders to close gaps. As for easing off on the inside front, well that is another favorite (three soft pedals and drop a gear if you must). I have the badges to tell them this, but our ride leaders are told to say the same. Communication is essential, as is leadership. People don’t know what they don’t know. If they’ve been told multiple times and STILL don’t get it, then they won’t be allowed back.

    A well executed group ride is a thing of wonder. Speed comes through smoothness, not individual effort.

    crashtestmonkey
    Free Member

    you should do a ride with a Triathlon club. Like a herd of Bambis on ice. T’other was a founder member of our local club and stopped riding with them pretty quickly, they seemed to have a crash every ride. Problem was it sometimes involved their own coaches, who wouldn’t take riding-skill advice from anyone.

    Did my first race marshalling at the weekend, horrible finish line pile up has left one buy with a fractured arm and fractured hip. Puts me off road racing – I can take injuring myself on an MTB but not sure I have the right attitude to be able to deal with it being someone else’s ‘fault’.

    More common now is new folk getting the fitness on their own then coming along and straight away feeling the slower group is too slow for them and jumping straight in with a fast group instead. Problem is they haven’t picked up the skills first so make the whole thing sketchy for everyone

    to be fair that pretty much describes me, and the solution is I don’t ride with the club I only recently joined and will let my membership lapse. As a born-again roadie (came back to it 3 years ago after 20 years MTB, and was never part of a club as a young ‘un) who spends 99% of my time riding solo I’ve got A-group fitness but D-group-riding experience. I’m not prepared to ‘waste’ valuable riding time at frustratingly slow novice group pace to learn the skills, but I’m also not prepared to endanger or p1ss off the fast guys, so I ride on my own, or with a loose bunch of mates or the other half.

    With the explosion in road cycling popularity and the Strava MAMIL effect here’s probably enough call for a “fast novice” group in most clubs now, but I doubt many such riders would accept that description or the feedback given.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    crashtestmonkey
    Free Member

    crap computer double post.

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    I’m not prepared to ‘waste’ valuable riding time at frustratingly slow novice group pace to learn the skills, but I’m also not prepared to endanger or p1ss off the fast guys, so I ride on my own, or with a loose bunch of mates or the other half.

    It doesn’t take long* and if you can gain the skills and have “A group” fitness then you stand a chance of avoiding the worst, which in my experience are the middle level of both; good enough speed to be out with faster groups trying to be real roadies but with not enough craft to really ride close. the faster groups generally have better riders (triathletes excepted 😉 )

    * like driving – you can ‘learn’ the skills quickly, but predicting the unpredictable only comes with time.

    Or time doing some frustratingly slow novice rides to be low intensity / recovery rides, and enjoy the scenery / cake stop like the rest of us do occasionally. I pick my groups on a sunday run by who’s in them, not how fast they’ll be trying to go.

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    Problem was it sometimes involved their own coaches,

    We’ve got a road coach not far from here. Could easily be described as A-group CV/website and D-group experience, results and qualifications. Some of the advice given certainly makes the eyebrows raise. But he’s got on with the sportive crowd, so many of them have even less idea than he does. But the money he’s charging. 😯

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    “Trying to tell half a dozen middle aged blokes who have spent the last three years scoring a million points on strava/sufferfest that they might want to do this that and the other will usually result in a string of swear words as they have a million points and a powermeter.”

    every club has that eejit….. “close the gap” “but my power says” “close the gap” “but” “close the **** gap”

    is quite a common call around here 😉

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    there’s two i won’t ride with.

    One is mr 3 abreast – ‘but i want to talk to x’ and ‘ we’re already taking up our lane, one more won’t make a difference’ – Not so much a safety issue, other than it makes the cars behind want to kill all cyclists and gives us all a bad name

    The other is mr racing line. he can’t corner without going wide – apex – wide. maybe an exaggeration but bloody hard to predict if you end up on his RHS on a country lane.

Viewing 8 posts - 41 through 48 (of 48 total)

The topic ‘Roadies, how many crashes in your club?’ is closed to new replies.