While there’s been plenty of riding on the team going on this year, it’s often been in 2s or 3s “off the radar”, meaning: not posted on our Meetup site.
While it’s fantastic so many team members are getting out & riding, it also means that we don’t ride as a larger group that often, and so miss the chance to practice drafting, pace lines and those other things that only make sense when you have a few more people around.
Also, if rides aren’t posted on Meetup, those members newest to cycling remain stuck riding laps at Longchamps or Vincennes because they don’t know where else to ride. And then it becomes a vicious circle, since to really improve as a road rider you need to, well, ride on roads.
So one of the things we want to do this year is a resurrect the regular Sunday group ride, which we’re calling Club Rides.
Based on feedback about past group rides, both Expatriés and PCGs’, we’ve decided to make them:
- Paid members only
- Limited size (determined by ride leader)
- Emphasis on group riding skills, not speed (at least not at the beginning).
- Mixed levels – just say ‘No’ to the Newbie Ghetto!
The first ride is on Sunday Oct 4 at 9 am, leaving from Versailles. We have additional Sunday rides planned, going progressively further, until Dec 6. We’ll see how brutal the winter is before you plan more.
A few FAQs
Who are these rides for?
We want a mix, as implied by the title of this post.
Alas, with anything Bike that sounds vaguely instructive and/or like it will avg less than 28km/h, there’s inevitably a red-hot response from newbie women, and a lukewarm-to-nonexistent response from men of any cycling ability.
In reality, group rides really do offer something for all levels of cyclist, regardless (obviously) of gender.
**But we would love to hear why people are NOT interested in participating in Sunday Club rides. Please leave a comment below, or on our Facebook members group.**
Who will be leading them?
That really depends on you. Right now we have Sarah, Karsten, and Nick willing to lead the Sunday Club rides. However, we will need more people to lead rides. Want to lead a Club ride? Let us know!
Will we ride over the winter? Are these rides going all year?
Quite honestly, we’ll have to see what the weather is like this winter. For the “all year” question, see above.
But we do triathlons. There’s no draft. Why ride in a group?
The reasons depends on whether you’re new to biking or already a confident rider. See the answer here.
