I ride in a no man’s land. Somewhere faster than most club
riders, but far slower than most people who race. Tonight was an amazing
display of the former and why I don’t really feel like I belong at club rides
much anymore.
I went to meet the regular club ride that leaves from the Velodrome
tonight, fully intending to just soft pedal, chill out, and have a good time. I
figured I could find my way into the ‘B’ group when it splits off and just have some fun. The website
said ride at 5:45, so at 5:40 I was approaching the parking lot when the group
went past me in the opposite direction. Lovely. So I park quickly and put my
front wheel on, turn on my computer, strap on my helmet and start the sprint to
try and catch the group. Nothing like starting my ‘casual’ ride with a full on
sprint and no warm up, right? In any case I catch the group in less than one
mile and make my way into the middle of the group where I fully intend to hide
and just ride along. I see the ride leader up front and he seems to be paying very
close attention to a female companion. Ok whatever, but if the ride was
advertised as a C ride meaning 12-15mph on flat, or 10-13 over rolling/hilly
terrain. I figure the riding around the Velodrome is flat to rolling, so Im
figuring 13-14 mph is the expected pace however since the ride leader appears
more concerned with his companion than the group so the pace is more like
10-12. Some folks in the back begin to grumble and move toward the front. A
tandem chugs along and is having to brake-check more often than the captain
seems to want to. Oh well, were just out
here to have some fun, right? Then it happens, the ‘companion's’ chain drops,
and she cant get it back on while riding so she stops. Then the ride leader
stops. He waves the group on with a ‘keep going’ so we do. Now, the tandem
steams along and some of the folks who were getting twitchy in the back start to pick up the pace. I roll
to the front and start to spin my normal cadence. One of the guys moves up
along side of me and begins to pick up the pace. I match him. He picks up
again. I match him. He stands to sprint. I stay seated and match him up the
next hill. At this point I realize I don’t have anything I need to prove so I ease
off. Im may never by 'fast' but at least Im stronger than the average club rider. The rest of the twitchy guys start to play amongst themselves and the next
hill comes. I stay seated, in my big ring and power up it. We descend towards
Bowers park, realizing that the main group is now pretty far behind us, so
someone suggests we stop at the park to regroup. The main group comes in, some
folks get some water, and we wait for the ride leader. He finally rolls in and
thoroughly berates us for riding ahead calling us ’assholes’ and letting us
know ‘none of us are ever invited to his rides again because we left a rider
behind.’ All this after telling us to keep going. Ok tough guy- when you pander
to your lady friend and tell us to keep going, what do you expect us to do? We
talk among ourselves a little and everyone confirms that we heard him tell us
all to keep going, and even some of the other beginner riders are a bit put off
both with the slower than expected pace as well as the behavior of this guy. I
guess that’s how it goes sometimes, but as we ride back all I can keep thinking
is how I just don’t belong in this kind of group anymore either. I guess I just
need to keep getting stronger so I can ride with the Emmaus crew more often.