Group ride ettiquette

[vincentpaul]

I commute every day over Bull Mountain, 20 miles round trip. I like to add 10 or 15 miles a day, so I head up for even more hill-climbing excitement on three or four days a week. I probably average about 150 miles of hills per week.

So, I did my first 100 mile ride Saturday at Reach the Beach in just over 6 hours. Yay! I've never done a group ride before, and had a perplexing experience. I'm plugging away on my 20-year-old no-shock mountain bike / commuting bike. I'm averaging about 17 miles per hour at the 75-mile point, just past Grande Ronde. There were a series of hills there, and group of about 15 in a line kept catching up to me on the flats. Three or four would bass me, and move just in front of me. Obviously, even on 26" wheels and staying several feet behind they picked up my pace. Everytime we hit the hills I'd pass them because they couldn't (or wouldn't) sustain my hill-climbing pace. After about 15 miles of this, one of the guys starts bitching at me saying that its "really rude" to move in and out of a line. Then spent about the next five minutes bitching to his buddies. So, what the heck was I doing wrong, if anything? Seems to me that it was these guys obligation to either pass me as a group or stop passing me. They obviously weren't really helping my time out. Thoughts?

[djasonpenney]

BTW, congratulations on doing RTB. I spent the entire day trying to drink enough water and use enough sunscreen. The weather isn't usually quite so perfect.

No, the fellow who complained about you obviously had his head inserted into his own nether orifice. If he wanted to keep his group separate, it was his responsibility to urge his friends to hammer for 15 to 30 seconds in order to get a little ahead of you. And if he or one of his friends couldn't manage the hill, he should have graciously let you pass.

On many organized rides I find I'm leapfrogging the same riders or groups of riders during the day. This is a normal occurrence. Those riders with the brains of a turnip may think something is wrong; the rest of us use it as an excuse to strike up a conversation :D

[brewcaster]

I have a dream:

That one day, there would be no more cycling elitists.
That one day new cyclists wouldn't feel intimidated by assholes who think they have a larger stake in the road.
That drivers would no longer be frightened to drive near a cyclists, for the cyclists would now follow all traffic laws, and no longer decide whether to ride legally from intersection to intersection.
One day, cyclists will look up and smile and enjoy the ride, instead of just trying to beat their best time.

I may have taken this a little off-topic, but damn, some people need to lighten up a little on the road. Especially during commute hours. Share the road and enjoy the clean air.