“Drop Rides” ? Is that really a thing?

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

for it to be a sport it needs a score and a winner at the end.

Darts, for example.

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)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:Football, basketball, and hockey are all team sports.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

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.

Yea but any roadie worth their salt will try to drop everyone on a climb and then take advantage of a gap. That’s the whole point of fast club rides surely? If they wanted to just ride, chat and look at the view they’d be on gravel bikes

Different bashes have slightly diiferent dynamics in my experience, though most will largely work and stay together until varying points in the ride where the stronger will push on and try to split the group…again, it’s good training (breaks, bridging, closing etc)

Yea but any roadie worth their salt will try to drop everyone on a climb and then take advantage of a gap

Only usually on the last climb of the ride, before then people will mostly sit up and wait at the top of climbs. The fat lads are needed on the flat bits!!!

Yea but any roadie worth their salt will try to drop everyone on a climb and then take advantage of a gap. That’s the whole point of fast club rides surely? If they wanted to just ride, chat and look at the view they’d be on gravel bikes

I assume this comment isn’t serious, but just in case- no, and no.

Right im gonna get fit, gets all the gear…ohh this is hard work , sod this wheres the sofa and the crisps….

Or buy an e-bike.

@ransos, i typed that but deleted it out of fear😃

Yea but any roadie worth their salt will try to drop everyone on a climb and then take advantage of a gap. That’s the whole point of fast club rides surely? If they wanted to just ride, chat and look at the view they’d be on gravel bikes

We have a fast gravel group as well………

Not sure I agree with TJ on the sport Vs passtime/hobby thing either. Just because you can have a chilled social ride, doesn’t mean it has to be. On almost any ride there’s competitiveness and bragging rights for being the first to the top (or first to the bottom), he might not be competitive his buddies might not be competitive. But stick two cyclists on a climb together and it’s a race, even if the other guy doesn’t know it!

If anything the roadies are more chilled and sociable. Rides are organized around an average speed, some people will be joining to push themselves a bit, others will be having an easy day of it, and so working as a group means that all except the two at the front and two at the back are probably discussing cake. Whereas off-road things tend to naturally string out a bit due to narrow trails / only one decent line, so you only really catch up and chat at a break.

i typed that but deleted it out of fear😃

Haha! I was going to make the same joke but also didn’t want to light the blue touchpaper 😂

If they wanted to just ride, chat and look at the view they’d be on gravel bikes

My ideal gravel ride is more like intervals, chill on tarmac/easy bits, go hard on lumpy or fun stuff, chill, repeat etc. I find some terrain more or less demands ‘going hard’ on the gravel bike to maintain a bit of tension through the legs/arms/chain, going easy just results in a kicking because you’re sat down with no resistance through the legs (a la riding cobbles on the road bike)

We have a fast gravel group as well………

+1

Yep, you can get dropped too on a gravel bike if you pick the wrong group!

Yea but any roadie worth their salt will try to drop everyone on a climb and then take advantage of a gap

Nah, there is a certain pride in being able to ride up and down the hills in nice formation ;-) . It’s a skill in itself.

Race simulation means all out, limited discipline, not taking even turns, a bit of carpet bagging, and the hammer down where you can to make a break. Fast drop rides are more disciplined through-and-off (two lines, outside slightly faster with rotations) or bit-and-bit (chainline), until the weaker riders fall off the back. If it’s a chainline, the trick is for stronger riders to go LONGER not faster on the front. It’s all good stuff and is why I ride in a club with people I trust to handle a bike properly one shoulder’s width apart at 40 km/h.

Tonight will see me in Group THREE. No drop, steady, fixed wheel recovering from last night’s hard session on the track. No drop, stop for mechanicals, tea and cake at the clubhouse, then beer at the pub for most (although normally a 40 km ride home for me).

My ideal gravel ride is more like intervals, chill on tarmac/easy bits, go hard on lumpy or fun stuff, chill, repeat etc.

This is what our local, mostly roadie, club is liking about the gravel rides. Chill/chat on the easy forest roads without having to think about traffic, then single out for the narrow sections of “foot”path, rinse and repeat. There’s still a pain-train group doing road rides but it’s inevitably less sociable.

Nah, there is a certain pride in being able to ride up and down the hills in nice formation 😉 . It’s a skill in itself.

Isn’t that just line dancing on bikes?

Isn’t that just line dancing on bikes?

That was last night in the velodrome. SQT sessions are basically any complex means of riding in groups you can possibly think of. Demonstrated first with judicious use of shoes for formation. Great fun :D

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

So, my local Premiership football players are only professional sportsmen for the 90 minutes that they actually play a match. All the rest of the time spent training they are just professional pastimers or hobbyists.

We have a fast gravel group as well………

So do we. My favourite ride. Can’t wait for the spring.

I get dropped now I’m older and carrying a bit more timber, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

i got dropped on a ‘beginners group ride’…

roadies are weird.

Fast, experienced chaingangs are way safer than a group of randoms on a social ride!

Poor disciplined group social road riding terrifies me, long straggling groups winding up motorists till the dodgy overtakes become inevitable 😕

 without a scoring system its a pastime 

Or playing a sport casually. There’s probably no reason to be quite so prescriptive about definitions. 

some people will be joining to push themselves a bit, others will be having an easy day of it,

Yep. For me riding round with the A group feels like a challenge. For the guy next to me with world records to his name that’s probably less the case. It’s not actually a race however much fun it is to burn off one’s mates (tell me that’s not fun?)

(Actually been a couple of years since I’ve roadbiked, but it’s the best way to get fit for enjoying rather than killing yourself on challenging mtb rides so I’m going to have to give it another go when it gets a bit lighter. May not go in with the As, though they’re steadier than the B1s.)

And actually on the ‘we all stay together’ thing: a friend was put off cycling full stop and forever after being nursed and cajoled along with a group on a social ride. We have a phrase “well, it’s what he would have wanted” from one grim endless headwind etap du dales, when one of the group we’d dragged along had basically disappeared. Sometimes being dropped is an act of kindness versus the misery of trying to keep up.

Sometimes being dropped is an act of kindness versus the misery of trying to keep up.

+1, by the time you’ve bonked it’s too late. Even sitting in a group won’t keep your speed up. It’s easier and less miserable if you just bail out and find a train, or make your own way back. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group that’s decided not to wait for someone that’s dropped off the back, but it’s one of those unwritten rules that you catch up and either then keep up or do the polite social dance of “I’ll drop off and head to the train station at ……”, “no it’s OK, we’ll wait”, “no really, I’ll head off, you all probably have afternoon plans”, etc.

Fast drop rides are more disciplined through-and-off (two lines, outside slightly faster with rotations) or bit-and-bit (chainline), until the weaker riders fall off the back. If it’s a chainline, the trick is for stronger riders to go LONGER not faster on the front. It’s all good stuff and is why I ride in a club with people I trust to handle a bike properly one shoulder’s width apart at 40 km/h.

This.

A good cooperative group – especially on quiet, smooth roads – is an absolute joy, it’s like poetry in motion. You can go way faster than on a solo ride for less effort and there’s a real sense of achievement in doing it well, hanging on til the end and so on.

On the other hand, a bad attempt at a chaingang with riders sitting on the front too long or trying to pull out from the middle of the group and charge to the front or surging through when the leader swings off can be a nightmare!

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group that’s decided not to wait for someone that’s dropped off the back

We tend to just get to a junction and go ‘weren’t there more of us’ and no one knows quite who dropped off and when etc…

The GPX is on the club website in advance of every ride, so everyone should at least know which cafe to head for…

Poor disciplined group social road riding terrifies me, long straggling groups winding up motorists till the dodgy overtakes become inevitable

Well the mistake here is riding primarily on the road.

My yearly local club run last time I tried to get dropped but kept catching them up due to mechanicals and a wrong turning by them…bloody nightmare just wanted to ride home at my own pace!!

Back from our freezing Tuesday night non-drop ride. Only four brave souls, all experienced. So 45km of medium paced four up pace line with some doing long turns and others short. Then Straight-to-pub for drinks and a snack. And a modest 25 km ride home for me.

We never drop beginners. Never. That can make for some very steady (slow) rides and a few shortcuts off the route to meet the faster groups at the coffee stop. Our ride leaders are all experienced club riders who take turns to lead.

I no longer feel bad about my dubious post ride recovery nutrition strategy…..

do the polite social dance of “I’ll drop off and head to the train station at ……”, “no it’s OK, we’ll wait”, “no really, I’ll head off, you all probably have afternoon plans”, etc.

As a ride leader of predominantly social to fast social (same ethos but faster) groups, we’re doing the dance slightly differently; we know we have to say ‘No, it’s OK, honestly, we’ll wait and regroup’ but inwardly we’re hoping you’re going to put your foot down with a firm hand and demand to be allowed to skulk off to the station ;-)

Nothing against road riding per se but not for me. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, as in giggle fun, like in MTB where you have obstacles, challenges, opportunities to cock up, jumps, berms, etc etc etc.
It all sounds quite serious and trying to emulate pro riders, and mostly failing.
It sounds like pure fitness, which I can sympathise with of course, but for me fitness AND fun go hand in hand. I play tennis a lot and it’s also a laugh.

I can’t remember seeing a road rider laugh while riding 😂.

Also you eventually end up with a weird body shape 😂

Training through hard road riding means more miles/climbing/descents MTBing. Pretty simple payoff for me.

There are many, many opportunities to cock up when you’re so far into the red you can barely see. Every one of those opportunities would likely to end up in a lot of pain, helps focus the mind.

Also you eventually end up with a weird body shape

Yep, not obese