finally maybe one ‘wins’ the sprint to the last sign
Also known as the Tuesday night World Championship
That’s what we accommodated in our club fast rides by having a (named) guardian for each ride the young lad was on – it was too fast for his actual Dad so other riders took it in turns to be his chaperone
We had to do similar - he was signed by a continental development team at 17, we ran out of chaperones....
I have been on a few rides with other people's clubs. The best one was with a group of wide ranging abilities, including a couple of ex-pros. It was flat-ish terrain, they would set out at a gentle pace and gradually wind it up until no-one was left. Brilliant fun. Of course they knew everyone was local and knew their way around (except me, but I had a GPS).
We just made sure the Monday night chainy isn't affiliated with any club, and it starts somewhere that it'd be hard to offload your teenager and drive off
Also known as the Tuesday night World Championship
No you have to pay to enter those at Hillingdon. E123 and a 3/4 thrashfest. Someone has already pre-entered the first on BC website! Keen.
Our club Tuesdays are serious affairs, including the serious beers afterwards. Saturdays are more social and accommodate new riders. All new riders ride in the beginners group until signed off as safe in a group. Then the fast ones kill the rest of us in Group one on a Tuesday 😀
We had to do similar – he was signed by a continental development team at 17, we ran out of chaperones….
Ewan Mackie? Came out with our club a few times. Obvs I dropped him 😉
I was in a road club at 16 (in the 80's) that sometimes dropped me and the other 16 year old if we weren't keeping up. Usually in the middle of nowhere with a cold rainy 30 mile ride into a headwind to get home. We laughed about it at the time - but looking back now a bit of modern-style safeguarding wouldn't have gone amiss.
We have the same at our running club. 7 or 8 pace groups based on distance at a set minutes per mile.
The slower groups will always wait for people and often stop to wait a agreed points.
The fast group(s) won't stop as it's seen as a training run. They're also much tighter to the agreed pace and route so people do know exactly where they're going and what they're getting themselves in to.
Chasing people who are faster than you is a great way to get fit and push yourself harder than you normally would,
he was signed by a continental development team at 17, we ran out of chaperones….
Ours went off to University, he still rides (fast) but his Dad informs that his performance has suffered somewhat compared to earlier potential.
There's a subtext to this that somehow keeping up with an non-dropping MTB group is better.
All that means is that teenage me was being bought beers by people twice my age in a pub in the middle of nowhere on a school night then riding home alone in the dark!
Perhaps with a bit of safeguarding I might have become a serious racing cyclist, not one of the reprobates drinking whiskey and heckling at SSUK 😂
They work best when it's a ride out to a circuit (some sort of quiet-ish roads, maybe a 5-mile loop) and then a thrash round and round that before regrouping and riding home.
The problem we found was that very few people in the club could actually do a proper efficient through-and-off. That was compounded by the shit state of the roads along the loop they chose which meant that following wheels and holding a line was tricky. 🤷🏻♂️
Sounds like another reason not to buy a curly-barred bike !
I can't get my head around road biking at all.
If a ride is all about seeimg who can't keep up, and then forcing them to drop out, where does the fun factor and the having a laugh with your mates bit fit in?
If a ride is all about seeimg who can’t keep up, and then forcing them to drop out, where does the fun factor and the having a laugh with your mates bit fit in?
They're designed as fast road training rides and that doesn't work if someone turns up, can't keep up and the whole group has to wait every 5 minutes.
If you make it clear and specify what it's for and what is expected then it works and it is good fun and social. It also builds good teamwork in a group/club that might be racing together later in the season.
I can’t get my head around road biking at all.
You mean one particular type of ride....
Some people are competitive and like seeing how good they are vs their club mates...
You should look up road racing, you'll notice they don't stop and wait for the slow guys either....
Rd riding with good pace in mind is superb for fittness, and feels great, it can be done on an mtb too which we do, mix it up is key.
I personally get great enjoyment from physically pushing myself, it is sport after all, i love climbing be it rd or mtb, this mentality also makes the rides rd or mtb that are more a day out socially even more fun as you can do more and feel better so can do more again, funny thing this fitness lark eh...doesnt come easy though which is the society problem.
I think in mtb mentality has changed alot since i started in the early 90,s and changed loads in the last 10 years, theres fewer and fewer riders who love the physical aspect imo, which is fine, do what you enjoy.
But i guarratee one thing, getting fitter equals more FUN not less.
its only a sport if you are racing
As has already been said, the point of the ride isn’t to drop people. It just means that it’s a ride where you can’t keep up, they won’t wait.
This is clearly better than not labelling it as such and then just mercilessy leaving people off the back of the group at random intervals throughout the ride. Naturally, rides advertised like this Will likely be the faster ones and not the social ones.
I genuinely can’t tell if all the comments about people “not having fun” are serious, like have you never tried to see how fast you can go, ever? Or are all amateur competitive hobbies supposedly miserable? Like no one in an amateur athletics club, rowing club, karate class, weightlifting competitions are having any fun?
Fair enough if it’s not your bag, but if you don’t think it’s fun (or social) you might be surprised if you try it.
TJ, Really, i didnt realise that, doesnt change my feelings or observations.
is it sport as we as mates race each other for a bit freindly competition , great fun and banter either way despite who or what defines it..
Some compete in different ways , some seem to see who can take the best photo of a cup off coffee or a cake....😁
Ewan Mackie? Came out with our club a few times. Obvs I dropped him 😉
Thats the one - he's ridden with a few local clubs.
I can’t get my head around road biking at all.
If a ride is all about seeimg who can’t keep up, and then forcing them to drop out, where does the fun factor and the having a laugh with your mates bit fit in?
Have you not read the thread?
Fair enough if it’s not your bag, but if you don’t think it’s fun you might be surprised if you try it.
the idea of riding that close to other riders and relying on someone elses skill for my safety terrifies me. Years ago riding motorbikes a mate I know is a good motorcycle rider and I tried to ride in close formation like the cops do - side by side in a lane. We just could not do it. goes against everything I know about road safety. 2 second gap and 1.5 m minimum passing distance
Yeah I agree it’s likely more risky than riding by yourself.
Then again, I’m not aware of tonnes of RTAs/crashes of club pelotons on the roads- I’m sure we’d here about it if it was common, so statistically doesn’t seem so bad, but that’s clearly just a hunch.
Kinda reminds me of the 'crit racing' I used to go to. We'd ride out to the West Midland Showground in Shrewsbury and have informal crit races where you'd ride laps of sketchy access roads and every lap the last person had to pull out until only one person survived.
I guess these days these sort of events would be inclusive, so everyone would just slowly ride around in circles for an hour and then fist pump each other at the end 😉
Well. If this thread has shown one thing (again) is there appear to be a lot of people who just cannot understand why someone might enjoy something that they themselves don’t.
If a ride is all about seeimg who can’t keep up, and then forcing them to drop out, where does the fun factor and the having a laugh with your mates bit fit in?
If you and your mates are both competitive, then that IS the fun. Like say, playing pool with your mates, or racing them down the hill, or seeing who can lift the most or whatever. It's good natured competition.
Riding in a tight group rolling through and off at 50kph+ is a thing of beauty, whether in a race or on a training ride. You learn to trust the other riders as this brings greater reward in terms of speed. There’s often little truck given for those not riding safely or sitting-on. In the same way that hucking off big jumps isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, road racing might not be another’s. <br />Being dropped on a road ride is almost a formative experience - it helps build your resilience as a rider - I once got dropped in the pissing rain, 50 miles from home one wet Sunday in November somewhere around Evesham on the way home from Wales - ridden 100 miles the day before with a raging cold and couldn’t quite manage the return trip.
I’ve had some great rides advertised as such. Pushed very deep to hang on and the feeling of arriving back together having “survived” was very pleasant.
Generally safer riders on a chaingang 👍
A summer evening chain gang / drop ride is amongst the funnest things you can do on a bike.
My first time going to one i got dropped after 10 minutes. Was back the next week and lasted a bit longer, I then used it to gain fitness and when i eventually made it round the whole route without getting dropped it felt like an achievement.
The well established fast groups will be a real mix of riders from different disciplines too - out and out roadies but also those that do xc, time trials, track, cx and gravel (and often a combination of those). Virtually everyone that participates will be looking forward to the clocks changing so things can kick off again. It's social in it's own way too with banter before and after the ride plus the ride home. On the surface it seems to be an unwelcoming environment but it's the opposite for me - if you are fit enough and know the ropes of how to ride one safely you could turn up to any of the open ones around the country and be included - no pressure to be social either, just ride hard and be safe and you'll be accepted.
Fast, experienced chaingangs are way safer than a group of randoms on a social ride!
Im sure - and I wouldn't do a social ride that close to folk either. Its a psychological thing about being responsible for myself and trusting no one else with my safety
the idea of riding that close to other riders and relying on someone elses skill for my safety terrifies me.
I'm not a roadie, but I do find the whole close riding / drafting thing exhilarating - you end up going far faster than any one of you could manage alone. It's a thing of beauty when you all get into the same rhythm, but it's not the sort of thing to do with strangers / randoms.
Years ago riding motorbikes a mate I know is a good motorcycle rider and I tried to ride in close formation like the cops do – side by side in a lane.
Me and my mate Terry used to do that - CHiPs stylee
As has already been said, the point of the ride isn’t to drop people. It just means that it’s a ride where you can’t keep up, they won’t wait.
Exactly. No point ruining it for everyone else just because an unfit mtber has turned up.
its only a sport if you are racing
where do you draw the line? Governing body, prizes, professionals?
this is similar to my work colleagues who do a weekly 5 a side. It’s the same 10 blokes (or nearly) every week. They pick teams each week, give out bibs and play for an hour. It might not be premier league but would you not say that it is the sport of football?
getting a bunch of your club mates, going out in a pack on a predetermined route and trying not to get dropped and possibly win a sprint to the line/cafe at the end. It’s not a grand tour but it still seems to be competitive cycling.
that all said, I, thinking a majority of drop rides are not a faux-race simulation, just a group that ride at a similar ability and don’t want one person showing up and ruining their collective morning. Whether that’s a newbie or a regular who is off the pace that week.
for it to be a sport it needs a score and a winner at the end. without a scoring system its a pastime - so your pals football is a sport but your chaingang is not unless you have a score system for it
And an element of exertion / need special clothes
Given we were talking about cycling and football the "element of exertion" I took for granted. a sport needs those two things - physical exertion and a score/winner at the end
Can get pretty sweaty playing Counterstrike!
Never done it but I get it. Same as you don't always want to do family ride pace down trails.
for it to be a sport it needs a score and a winner at the end. without a scoring system its a pastime
Fastest time (aka first across the finish line) is just about the purest form of sport possible...
And no one is really stating the actual "chain gang" event is a sanctioned sporting event but most participants would view it as "training" just like running a marathon (you don't start out running 26 miles - you start off shorter distances and use a variety of training techniques to build up endurance and speed to be able to reach your training targets.)
As has already been said, the point of the ride isn’t to drop people. It just means that it’s a ride where you can’t keep up, they won’t wait.
Mystery solved 🙂
I’m no roadie so it’s not for me, but it makes more sense now thanks. When I first read it, I just thought “Er… that sounds rubbish”
Cambridge dictionary
sport noun (GAME)<br /><br />A1 [ C ]a game, competition, or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job:<br />Football, basketball, and hockey are all team sports.<br />I enjoy winter sports like skiing and skating.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
sport
/spɔːt/
noun
1.
an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
"team sports such as soccer and rugby"
TJ
Given we were talking about cycling and football the “element of exertion” I took for granted
This is the thing , i honestly think lots of folk are taken by surprise by that bit, hey mtb/cycling looks good, then ohh good lord this is actually hard work.
Right im gonna get fit, gets all the gear...ohh this is hard work , sod this wheres the sofa and the crisps....
You can see outside all the new year resolutions😁 most will be back in the house by February the 5th
