FLCC> sunday rides question

[Wayne Gottlieb]

Marilyn, I think Andrejs does a great job organizing
the slower paced group, but there is no such
organizing soul for the faster groups.  If I go on a
Sunday ride, I make sure of two things, 1. I know the
route and 2. I know that at least one person my rate
is going.  I will call some people to make sure.  But
that said, it would be a good idea to have some sort
of plan to leave no-one behind.  breaking up into
groups before the ride starts would be nice.  Groups
of riders who are more or less matched, could agree to
not drop anyone or wait until they catch up (until
they say, "go ahead, I'm fine, I know the route, I
have a cell phone).  I think that by now most of us
can figure out who should be grouped together.  We
could exchange cell phone numbers.  Before the OCC
rides, someone makes copie of all the possible routes
(any volunteers?).  If I was able to go on every
Sunday ride, I would consider taking more of an active
role, but I can only make every third one.  On most of
the rides I'm on people wait once a groups are
established, but you can't depend on this.  Wayne
--- Marilyn Dispensa <mdispensa at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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