The fast group rides differ from the other groups in that:
a) they rarely go via High Beach to do a second pick up at 9:45am
b) there's hardly ever a 'cake stop', it's normally just three hours or so of continuous riding
c) there isn't a 'no one gets left behind' rule
The main reason for (b) (and to a lesser extent (a)) is that many of the people on the fast group rides are 'time poor' people with family duties, so they need to cram as many miles in as they can before getting home for lunchtime. In a perfect world, I would be happy to 80 miles with a lengthy coffee break somewhere, but it tends to be 55 miles with a brief roadside banana while someone changes an inner tube.
Another reason for (a) is that it restricts you in terms of route. We often choose to go out to Navestock via Chigwell Row instead. We have been known to do a second pick up at The Castle in Woodford, though. Perhaps this could be formalised?
The most problematic thing is (c), because there are invariably newcomers coming on their first group ride who want to try out the faster group. If those people start dropping off the back, you're in a bit of a quandary - do they know where they are? Can they get back OK? So then no one is quite sure what to do, things can get very stop-start, or the group fragments into sub-groups.
The other question is 'how fast is fast?' There's a huge difference between 17mph and 20mph, but the group often ends up trying to accommodate people who want anything between these. The last couple of times I've been out on the group rides there has been talk of setting up a fourth group - a kind of 'faster than John's and no coffee stop, but not actually spending the whole ride in the red desperately clinging to someone's wheel' group. The other Sunday I ended up leading a de facto fourth group which detached itself from the back of the fast group at Navestock (via the cunning ruse of turning left instead of right) - this might be one solution? i.e. to suffer on the back of the fast guys for an hour and then break off?
Another issue is choosing the routes. No one likes hanging around in the cold outside the Town Hall trying to agree who is going where. For this reason Ed has started to organise a meet up in the Wynwood Art District Cafe (just round the corner from the town hall) from 8:30 so that people can work out the plans over a warm drink. I must confess, I've never made it to the cafe, I struggle even to get to town hall by 9:00, so I've no idea how well this is working out.
(more to follow...)
@JamieF
The fast group rides differ from the other groups in that:
a) they rarely go via High Beach to do a second pick up at 9:45am
b) there's hardly ever a 'cake stop', it's normally just three hours or so of continuous riding
c) there isn't a 'no one gets left behind' rule
The main reason for (b) (and to a lesser extent (a)) is that many of the people on the fast group rides are 'time poor' people with family duties, so they need to cram as many miles in as they can before getting home for lunchtime. In a perfect world, I would be happy to 80 miles with a lengthy coffee break somewhere, but it tends to be 55 miles with a brief roadside banana while someone changes an inner tube.
Another reason for (a) is that it restricts you in terms of route. We often choose to go out to Navestock via Chigwell Row instead. We have been known to do a second pick up at The Castle in Woodford, though. Perhaps this could be formalised?
The most problematic thing is (c), because there are invariably newcomers coming on their first group ride who want to try out the faster group. If those people start dropping off the back, you're in a bit of a quandary - do they know where they are? Can they get back OK? So then no one is quite sure what to do, things can get very stop-start, or the group fragments into sub-groups.
The other question is 'how fast is fast?' There's a huge difference between 17mph and 20mph, but the group often ends up trying to accommodate people who want anything between these. The last couple of times I've been out on the group rides there has been talk of setting up a fourth group - a kind of 'faster than John's and no coffee stop, but not actually spending the whole ride in the red desperately clinging to someone's wheel' group. The other Sunday I ended up leading a de facto fourth group which detached itself from the back of the fast group at Navestock (via the cunning ruse of turning left instead of right) - this might be one solution? i.e. to suffer on the back of the fast guys for an hour and then break off?
Another issue is choosing the routes. No one likes hanging around in the cold outside the Town Hall trying to agree who is going where. For this reason Ed has started to organise a meet up in the Wynwood Art District Cafe (just round the corner from the town hall) from 8:30 so that people can work out the plans over a warm drink. I must confess, I've never made it to the cafe, I struggle even to get to town hall by 9:00, so I've no idea how well this is working out.
(more to follow...)