hmm that's a great idea!

Damn! Awesome idea! Thanks for the pro tip! ❤

Learned that as a bike mssgr in NYC back in the day, was the coolest kid in school opening a PowerBar with both hands until I got doored 😅

I always cut mine open with scissors before leaving home. They slide out easier then just ripping the package.

i seriously thought you meant handlebar tape and imagined some mad lad eating their grip tape mid race for extra energy boost

Very true. I try to remember that everyone in a group ride, even if they're leading or a strong rider, is under some level of physical/mental stress just by being there. That tends to elevate emotional responses to things that would otherwise be a very small issue.

Some ride organizers/leaders give a 5 minute orientation before each ride in which they cover the main points: overlapping wheels, centerline adherence, etc. If you do one of those things that was discussed by the leaders, you should take your medicine with humility.

@@DEAR7340 yes , in theory. But if it's like people at my job...mentioning the 'donts' and the person understanding what those terms actually mean..are 2 diff things. But it is interesting to me ( been out of it last few years, but started racing 1989....and even with all the media tools at riders disposal these days..its sorta interesting to still read the learning curve people have to go through ..during their 1st ride/race. Like chosingwhen to eat solid vs your liquid nutrion based on current paces etc

@@DEAR7340 medicine?

Yeah coming from Ohio, 50F is almost balmy as long as the winds are mild

Top of the morning to ya!!

These are Californians we're talking about here, lol

We are a bit soft 🤣

Yeah, same here. Riding in Salt Lake City, Utah... 50F is probably my favorite starting temperature.

Been there and done that. I've seen a few riders go wide open Psycho over the smallest of things.

Kudos to you for showing up. Keep at it :) maybe there's a different group ride where people are nicer. Or just try again and tell everybody you talk to on the bike that you're new to group riding. I hope they'll understand and don't give you a hard time. It should be about having fun and riding together outside. Greetings from Germany :)

Yeah. It's so lame when that happens. My best advice is to just hang near the back (if it's safe) when riding with a new group. Get a feel for the group/pace/etc and then later in the ride if you're feeling it move towards the front.

Newcomers are frequently Dbags too unfortunately. They join into a new bunch or start their first bunch ride ever without having a clue as to what to do other than "ride fast and strong". It's a great way to fragment a bunch especially if that bunch already has that style of rider. I get what you're saying but it goes both ways and the newcomer should start by asking questions. It's not that hard to do that.

Maintaining a constant speed when you get to the front of a paceline, and then softpedaling just the right amount to switch over to the "receding line" without creating gaps or forcing others to change their pace, are things that take practice to get the feel for. And yes, it's often something that people yell at other riders for. Sometimes yelling is the only sure way to communicate a concern on the road at speed, but the rider who yells should also be willing to reach back out in a calmer tone later.

Thanks for the love 🙏 Let’s do it when I come down to LA! 💪

@@norcalfullraces sounds like a plan! Montrose has a crazy group ride I've been afraid of 😅

I've heard some people partially open their gels to make them easier access. If you do this, make sure you eat it before you lean back against anything or wash the jersey... and finish off the gel -- don't save half for later for the same reason. (GU brand was always pretty easy to open while riding)

That’s a great tip for bars and other solid foods. Sometimes they can be really pesky to open on the move.

Absolutely. Clif Bloks can be hard to open when you are OFF the bike. I just take a pair of scissors and cut the whole end of the sleeve off before the ride. Anything in mylar can also be tricky; it won't tear, until it does.

I make my own bars and wrap with parchment and aluminum. Unwrapping is definitely easier than opening something sealed.

@@SeraStaplz I’ve made rice cakes and done this, with the double sided parchment/foil. Personally, I find this to be a little harder to open than a pre-packaged, but hey, to each their own

Thank you so much for the support Jon!

Have you ever had a team mate wear headphones during a pickup basketball game? Less dangerous but just as infuriating.

I generally would not ride with earphones unless it's an isolated bike path on a river etc.

Keep in mind, that the back can be the hardest place to ride. After every turn, the front will accelerate back to speed and you need a little snap to get back on; those snaps add up. It's a good practice to observe from the back, as you say, but also adjust your tactics to reduce the number of matches you'll need to strike.

You'd be yelling at a lot of people on the british road race scene. I find group ride crashes extremely rare and in my club of 600 riders there hasn't been one that I know of in the past 3 years.

Overcommunicate. We tend to fixate on what is happening in front of us because it changes faster than what is overtaking us. So, when you are overtaking from the left or right, announce your intentions. It also helps to acknowledge the communication with a nod or a quick thumbs up.

Nobody said that yelling at anyone for any reason is elitist. Methinks you might be too sensitive and saw criticism where there was none. The context of that comment was clearly not a safety issue. That particular yelling was about not getting to the front fast enough to pull. It was someone who thought their time (edited for typo) on that ride was super important and thus was frustrated when someone wasn't helping them get the best time possible. That's why it's considered elitist. That person knows the plan and anyone who doesn't know the plan is ruining things for everyone else. Additionally, the context heavily implied that the elitism comes in when chastising or yelling at new riders instead of just communicating the expectation.

Solo riding is better.

What was the pace? 4 watt/kg plus???

Oh my gosh…this is actually an amazing idea! Definitely going to do this! Thank you!

Yes please!

Thank you! I tried my best 🤣

@@norcalfullraces It's kind of a black art, but one that's sublime when it all comes together. Keep at it! 👍

I thought that was the ride leader in the Trucker Cap.

We are soft out here 🤣

The Ride leader.

Where I live there are couple of no drop social group rides that will travel at 28km or so pace. There is brief put up on FB of the route and expectations and the organisers always provide a brief before going and if there's new faces they get asked if they've ridden in a group before and will be provided extra info on group etiquette. Usually it will be rolling turns at the front and not a fast paceline like this one. Ask your local shop/s about any no drop rides in your area and get into it!

Yes there are and they're probably the best thing providing there is at least one experienced rider to guide the group. I've seen a bunch of newbies kick off with a few silly rules while ignoring (or not knowing) really important ones.

He’s a pretty dang cool guy! I’m very lucky!

I put a gel under a leg of my bib shorts. Super easy to access

I use the GU carb mix!

Welcome to the area! Are you looking for just a chill one or a competitive group ride?

@@norcalfullraces thanks! Both? Depends what the w/kg cycle is for the competitive group rides are? I’m getting back to fitness currently.

@@adamashfield357 the ride in this video is the spectrum ride, which is fast pace, I definitely would say it’s competitive. 20+ mph average speed for the ride. If you are new, you can hop into the Pen Velo ride on Saturday and Sunday. Starting point is at top of Cañada road and 92 parking lot. You can do that ride and time it with spectrum if you want to get more intense riding in.

Well the obvious is to be at front at beginning of climb and sag back when necessary. If you lose contact and never catch up, oh well this is why some group rides are drop rides. Keep doing these rides, eventually you will make the whole ride with the group

"It's not personal".... That's what we tell new riders to the local group rides. "If you get yelled at it's not personal. It's to have you make a correction quickly." It's the need to communicate loudly and quickly. Safety is paramount. Yelling accomplishes this and gets results quickly. When you are moving along above 20mph in a pace line, it's not the time to have a drawn out conversation. After the ride we can talk about it and make sure everyone is good.

@@jamest2502 Well, that's a load of crap. "Yeah, I'm going to scream at you, but when it's all over, I'll explain to you why you need to let bygones be bygones. I gotcha, bro. It's all good." Up your nose with a fire hose. I've done so many sports in my lifetime and easily, easily, the worst effete a-holes were in road cycling. It's a product of demographics. Road cycling attracts a disproportionate amount of yuppies and rich boys who already have senses of entitlement and superiority, which is all the more comical in these silly "competitive" group rides. These numbnuts persist under the delusion that they're contending for the win in Roubaix or the Tour. Pros, of course, don't ride like this at all. In an absolute sense, these group riders, even the "A" group members, are Freds. Gulfs separate them from truly gifted riders. And that's the other thing, regardless of which sport it is: the really good ones rarely act like this. It's almost always the pissants who thrust out their chests and bark and howl. These are the guys who drop $8/9/10 k and more on their rigs, trying to shave a few hundred grams for their "competitive group rides" and races that mean nothing. Do you guys have any conception of how clownish you look and sound? If you're so worried about accidents, don't participate in group ride sprints. Sprinting among 30-40 guys the likes of you folks is a recipe for injury. You don't have the bike handling skills to react at 35-40 mph in a group sprint. Little wonder that I've seen so many crashes in videos of group rides and Cat. 2-5 races. Those races aren't dangerous because of the sizes of the peloton, they're dangerous because those riders lack the skills to shoot gaps at those speeds, the sense to pull up when they have no chance, the coordination to do all the millisecond adjustments necessary at those speeds to avoid catastrophe.

I came back to specifically find this part of the ride because it made me nervous in the moment when the camera threaded through between me (on my right) and community riders going much slower. I'm not sure what the etiquette is on this to move up in the group on others' right side at the same time "riders right!" is being shouted up ahead.

Okay mom.

There are places in this ride where pacelines aren’t practical. Narrow and winding roads.

Here in Florida it's unbearably cold @60 degrees and overcast.