Forum menu
then there’s an onus on the Ride Leader to ensure that the route is to everyone’s capabilities
a bit chicken and egg though - is the route published before people say they are coming, or is there a "who is free sunday morning" and then the leader must pick a suitable route?
giving out the gpx ahead of time is a double edged sword. get dropped or just get separated at a junction and you can catch up or regroup at the coffee stop. but it does fix the ride. if a weaker rider turns up unannounced, or the weather turns, its harder to take a diversion.
as I said, I no longer road ride, but I'm in two MTB groups. One is a proper club, the other a Whatsapp group.
Generally only at risk of hurting themselves and damaging their own bike when off road, but talk of capabilities and ride leaders does have me slightly worried.
ayjaydoubleyou:
He doesn't just pick one route - he actually designs multiple for different abilities. So if someone unknown says they want to go the fast group I'd expect the ride leader to ask some questions and possibly signpost them to one of the other groups (indeed you might even have a rule that nobody joins the fast group without successfully completing the mid group first).
Probably the main thing you think of as the leader is the route - and just because you've planned a good route doesn't mean if something happens other people won't disagree it was well planned. Certainly, if I was going to get sued for an accident on a fast descent, I'd want the likes of BC backing my corner to say "yes that IS quite normal in these circumstances etc". The alternative is BC actually become the expert witness for the other side - explaining what a well-organised club run looks like (structured club governance with ride leaders members of the club, written risk assessments, training for ride leaders etc).
What other responsibilities does a ride leader potentially have? Examples might be:
1. Deciding if the weather on the day is OK, or should be cancelled.
2. Intervening if someone turns up with a bike that's clearly dangerous (in winter our local club wouldn't let you join them with no mudguards).
3. Briefing riders on the day, e.g. "When you get to the big hill - be careful at the bend at the bottom as the farmer crosses cattle there"
4. Realising that someone in the group is suffering from a medical problem rather than just being slow, and stepping in to help/get help. (diabetics and asthmatics ride the tour - no reason they can't ride a club run!)
5. Considering if everyone understand how to ride properly in a group; that might be talking to people at the start, arranging "mentoring" newer people for the first part of a ride etc but also assessing it dynamically - does the discipline drop when people are tired? was the standard OK when it was dry but now its raining?
6. Learning from issues on previous runs - "AW surprised everyone with his braking on these new-fangled brakes we should warn everyone that disk brakes actually work!" or "that mud on that descent was really bad - we should avoid that route or warn everyone to really slow down and spread out for it" or "the hand signal from some of these new guys are shit - we need to do better training/briefing"
And if you've planned the other routes but aren't on them how are those points getting dealt with by whoever is managing those groups on the day. How are problems from one group getting shared with the course planner or people leading other groups etc?
In a non-cycling world I sit on the committee of another sports club. We spend a lot more time trying to learn from our (thankfully rare) mistakes and screw ups than we do trying to preempt things that have never gone wrong before in 20 years of doing it. Most people and the courts accept that unforeseen things happen - it's failing to address them so they don't happen again which will cause you problems.
And if you are leading MTB rides those same sort of issues apply - whilst you might not be likely to get a pile up, you could run into a group of walkers, someones dog etc. and if we are talking actual mountain biking then obviously there's risks of exposure/the whole group being out in the weather for hours waiting for help etc. The details are different but the concepts are the same. Similarly, it should be fairly obvious if it is just a small group of mates who meet informally at different times with no clear leader and everyone has a similar degree of skill/experience or someone is coordinating and planning a whatsapp group in a structured way which is effectively a club with some leaders who have extra duty of care to the less experienced people.