FLCC> sunday rides question

[Marilyn Dispensa]

I have some questions about the Sunday rides.I just joined the list serve so
forgive me if these issues have been addressed.
I've been on a handful of Sunday rides over the last few years and was on
the Taylor valley ride two weeks ago.
It seemed like there was a "faster" group and and a "slower group". I
happened to go with the "faster group" since I was with a friend who was
going with them and wanted to do the longer distance. The "slower" group was
going to do about 25.
I'm comfortable in the 15-17 mph average range and this group was faster
than me but they waited and we ended up finishing together.

This past week, I went to the TC building to meet the riders for the
Newfield ride. There was a large group of people and I noticed a range of
riders and thought  to myself, "whew!  I'd definitely will not be the
slowest."  A bunch of riders took off and  I went with them on the initial
climb up Hayts road.  I dropped from the pack and thought well, I'll just
drop back and go with th other riders because I can't chase these guys for
55 miles.  I didn't see anyone so i back tracked and realized that the
others took another route. So I was alone and ended up going back to the car
and did some off road later in the day.  Not fun. If I wanted to bike alone,
i could just do it from my house.

So i'm asking: what is the general pace of the rides? Is there a group of
people in the "medium speed" range that still want to bike longer distances?
Perhaps there could be more of an effort to inform the group of the options
if there are multiple speeds.
What do others think?

A couple of years ago on an FLCC ride , my chain slipped off and then lost
the rest of the group (except for one kind soul). The two of us biked alone
and i don't think we were ever missed by the others.  Being dropped is an
expectation that I have in this group.  On another couple of rides I've
dropped back to keep company of a slower rider feeling like leaving them
would certainly not encourage them to come back.
If the culture of the club is, "keep up if you can"  then it should be
stated as an expectation, not as a "recreational ride".

Marilyn
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