So you think you want to race? Part 2: Your first group ride

Reprinted from http://www.gamjams.net Watch for weekly installemnts of this interesting and informative series.

by David Kirkpatrick, NCVC

Before your first group ride, it’s natural to feel a bit unsettled.  You’re about to go out with a group of people whom you’re sure are faster, more experienced and better bike handlers than you are.  Surely they’ll smell your fear and pounce all over you.  Really, there isn’t a whole lot to sweat.  If you’ve followed the advice in Part 1, your equipment is in great working shape and you’ve made sure that you’re capable of handling yourself on the road.  Now the key is to keep your eyes and ears open to learn as much as possible while acting like you’ve been there before.

One of the keys to getting comfortable in a group is to blend in.  No one is going to be impressed by the Paolo Bettini World Champion jersey your mom got you for Christmas when she found out you’d gotten into riding.  Just the opposite, in fact.  You have two choices when it comes to what you wear: kit from your team or a relatively conservative non-team jersey with dark colored shorts.  I know you love Frosted Flakes.  I do too.  That doesn’t make the Tony the Tiger jersey a good idea.  No Discovery or Postal jerseys either, please.  Remember, you are trying to blend in.  The guy with the replica polka dot jersey with matching shorts with the price tags still attached doesn’t blend in very well.  If your kit says you know what you’re doing, your minor transgressions on the road have a good chance of being overlooked or gently corrected.  If your kit screams “rookie,” you are likely to be treated a bit less charitably.

One thing not to worry about is the label on your equipment.  There are plenty of pros out there winning races on Ultegra or Centaur, and plenty of cross racers swear by 105.  It’s not what you spent, it’s how it works.  No one will notice your slightly down market gear, but a dropped chain is a pain in the neck whether the chain says “Record” or “Tiagra.”  If your stuff works, it’s cool.  One thing you definitely don’t want to do is roll up on some spiffy blinged out carbon wheel set.  The guy who won the Tour trains on aluminum clinchers.  Not that you should even consider owning a set of carbon wheels at this point, but if you do, leave them in the garage.

You’ll sometimes see a triathlete roll up for a group ride sporting a full aero bar set up.  Not too many people are going to be big fans of this.  If you use aero bars when you’re riding by yourself (not that there’s anything wrong with that), leave them at home when you ride with a group.  They can get tangled up with other people and cause a crash, or gore someone in a crash.  No aero bars on group rides.  Don’t be that guy.

Pretty soon after the group rolls out, you should start getting a good general sense of the group.  Some groups are more social than others, some are more clique-y, some are dead quiet.  Your job at this point is to stay in a somewhat anonymous place in the middle of the group and take in all of the info that you can.  Chatting with the guy next to you is fine, an introduction and a “how’s it going?” are always appropriate.  You might mention that you’re new to the group.  If you haven’t made that fact blaringly obvious by this point, you have pretty well earned license to ask for any info or advice you feel is necessary, so ask away.  Without being annoying, of course.  

One of the trickier aspects of figuring out a group’s habits is how they deal with traffic intersections.  I’d recommend staying away from the front of the group for a bunch of reasons but this is prime among them.  There are certain intersections that a group will know it’s safe to roll through, while others require extra caution.  Leave it to the regulars to lead the group through these situations.  In general, until you achieve a pretty good comfort level, staying away from the lead is a good idea, and if things are getting a bit too spicy for you, just back off.  People might huff and puff that you’re letting the group split, but whatever.  Better safe than sorry.

As you ride along, you might notice people joining the group en route.  There are times and places to join a group in progress, as well as right and wrong ways to do it.  You never want to join a group while it’s going full steam, or in a section with turns.  The safest ways to join a group are at a traffic light, or chasing onto the back of a group.  Slotting yourself into the middle of a group raging into a turn is no way to make friends.

One thing I’d definitely recommend is scouting the route of any ride you’re thinking about doing.  This makes you aware of the turns, hills and difficult sections as well as making you familiar with how to get home in case you get dropped or have a mechanical.  Going out to the middle of nowhere at mach speed, getting dropped and having no idea how to get home isn’t a great way to spend a Sunday.  Getting dropped is way less of a big deal than you think it is.  It happens, and it’s never fun while it’s happening, but there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it when it does.  In most group rides, there are sections where the action gets really hot and a lot of riders get dropped.  Normally, the dropped riders will regroup and do the rest of the route together as a “B” group.  It may also happen that you get shelled before or after the normal regroup section, which is why it’s always good to know the route and how to get home.

Self sufficiency, beyond just knowing the route, is important for everyone on a group ride.  You should be prepared to hydrate and feed yourself, as well as fix flats and deal with any minor mechanicals.  Always take two full water bottles and a gel or energy bar.  You might not need it all, but it’s way better to have it and not need it than vice versa.  A spare tube, patch kit, tire lever and air are mandatory.  Whether it’s best to go with a frame pump, mini pump or CO2 inflator I will leave you to fight out on the cycling forums, but you need to carry air.  A mini tool is like the American Express card – don’t leave home without it.  All you need is a basic version with hex keys and screwdrivers.  These will fix almost anything that happens.  If you really want to go MacGuyver, pack a two inch piece of thin wire and a foot of duct tape wrapped around an unsharpened golf pencil.  You can fix anything with that.  The last two essentials are a cell phone and a few bucks.  The cell phone stays off until needed – no one needs to hear your cool new ring tone or know how indispensable you are to the world.

Assuming you make it to the end of the ride without any mechanicals or getting dropped too badly, congratulations.  Wasn’t that fun?  It’s always good to give a quick “thanks for the ride” as the group splits up on their separate ways.  Be sure to eat something, hydrate and give your bike a quick once over as soon as you get home.  Then get ready to do it all over again.  Soon enough, you’ll be the crusty old regular doling out sage advice to all the newbies.

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Also in this series:
So you think you want to race? Part 1: Questions demanding honest answers
So you think you want to race? Part 3: Han Solo or Attack of the Clones
So you think you want to race? Part 4: The Training Calendar
So you think you want to race? Part 5: The Woman's Perspective

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David Kirkpatrick captained the NCVC Cat 4 team in 2008 and saw 6 of his teammates upgrade to Cat 3, due in no small part to teamwork, strategy, planning and a lot of the other stuff David writes about here. You can follow some of his less structured rants about cycling at flamencochuckwagon.blogspot.com.