If you are on cycling holiday then you are bound to run into this issue: Level difference. Whether you are with a group of friends or a group of girlfriends, with your husband or wife, with strangers or, for instance, with your club, it doesn't matter. Especially the men among themselves sometimes want to be busy with their own goals (read: board sprints, training schedules, intervals or 'pounding hard') while that can ruin the fun for the whole group. Fair enough, after a few drinks that does straighten out, but still. Now this is simple to prevent. Here are 6x tips to avoid irritation. That way, you can make a weekend or longer period a success for everyone.
Waiting for the slowest is no fun for anyone.
Divide the group
If there are six of you, then splitting up might be just too rigorous but as soon as your group consists of 10 or more then splitting up by level is a good way to get rid of the initial irritation. Are you normally the strongest of them all? Then make sure you are in the fast group. Are you on the borderline between two groups? Then think carefully about what you are doing yourself a favour with and also how you are feeling. If you feel a bit off, you go in the slow group, are you in top form and do you have good legs? Then join the fast group. Be honest in that too. If you are always in the fast group, you must have a really bad day if you don't want to keep up. No one is going to like putting yourself in the slow group. So either do all the leading or go for a recovery ride.
Take the headline
Are you in extremely good shape? But the rest are not feeling up to it for a while? Then do most of the leading. It sounds so simple, but if you are more in the wind than the rest, you can release your strength and the rest can benefit from it. But always make sure the rest of the riders are not still on their toes. If you're having an absolute super day then, you better keep in mind our next tip: ride an extra lap.
Extra round
You'll just see: riding in a group, you have great legs. So good that you don't actually feel the effort. To put a bit of tension on your legs, you press on, while everyone behind you is sitting with their tongue on their wheel. Not funny, if you are behind you. So ride along socially in the lap, and if you want to hurt yourself a little more: do a little extra loop and then join in. Or if you are sure that you are head and shoulders above the rest (read: you ride the podium in amateur races, the rest are from cycling club 'the fat belly') do yourself a favour: before the start of your joint lap, go for a full hour in the neighbourhood. You tired, the rest happy. Everybody happy. And you'll have another great story.
A variation on this: if you have bad legs and are done with it: choose the short route home. There is always someone who wants to go with you and so everyone has a great day.
Plate sprints really are 2019
However fun it is for the fastest in the group, nobody sprints with you all the time. Afterwards, nobody cares whether you were first in Roelofarendsveen or Ijzendijke either. Really nobody. Not even the person who finished behind you. They care the least. If sign sprints are the norm in your group: fine. If not, leave it alone. After all, you're out for fun.
(c) A Swiss With A Pulse/Alain Rumpf
Pace yourself
Did you know that pros usually don't look at their counter for their speed? But only at wattages? And that they don't tell their fellow riders afterwards: 'so, they cycled a nice 45 an hour'. Strange that we all do that. If you ride in a group, it is much more important that everyone can keep up, instead of having to reach a certain average. After all, nobody is writing down your time and nobody cares about it on Strava either. The rankings are fun, but even in those you can include the rule: nobody cares.
Following on from this: for example, if you are out in pairs and you have more power? Then do an extra lap or adjust your training schedule to suit the other person. If necessary, do strength training, so that you ride at 60 RPM instead of 90. Or do cadence training and try to spin at 115 RPM. Better for everyone!
Listen to each other
This is perhaps the most important tip, especially for the men among us. If someone says he can't keep up, it's for a reason. He really can't keep up. You can deal with that in different ways, but for the fun of it, exploit one of the tips above. If there are only a few of you (less than 6). Then let the person join in nicely out of the wind. Are there more than 6 of you? Then split up or get him/her to deflect earlier. Task for the group leader. Or make a small loop from a terrace, so the other person can catch up. Nothing wrong with that right?
Are you missing any great tips? Or do you have the golden tip for a good ride with your friends/friends/colleagues/etc? Let us know in the comments!
