What I meant by don't drop me

A followup to last week's post. But first a bit of background... A few years ago, a group of friends started an email list (referred to in the text below as FAIB) for folks who have time off midweek to ride. While my Tuesday rides are based out of a local coffee/bike shop and are open to all, most of the regulars are members of that email list. What follows is from the note I sent to that list after last week's disappointing ride (with a couple of edits for clarity to those not on the list).

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For the past couple of weeks, I have posted a link in reference to my Tuesday rides. The page contains the GPS links to the routes, but also includes a little of my philosophy about the rides.


Before I restarted the Tuesday rides a couple of weeks ago, I added this paragraph at the top of the page 

Tuesday rides resume. The fixie pixie is riding again. I'm slower and keeping the distances down for now. Shocker: I am driving to and from rides. Lunch stops are even more important than ever, as a chance for me to stretch and rest and I usually need another short break partway back from lunch. If you are willing to tolerate a mellower pace and help me in my recovery, please join me. Warning: If you drop the ride leader, you will be publicly shamed and not invited back.

Last Tuesday I got dropped multiple times, and I would be dishonest if I didn't say that it hurt my feelings, so I really want to be clear about what these rides mean to me.

When I first started riding with this group a few years ago, it was a small group of friends, who had free time on weekdays and liked to get out for a social ride. The idea was that if you wanted to go out for a ride, you'd come up with a route and pick a date and time you were planning to ride, and then invite others to join you. It was much smaller and less formal than a typical club ride. We'd often have 2-6 riders. So it was really just friends inviting friends for a ride, not an event, not a race, but a casual friendly day out. I was honored to be invited by a friend to join this group. I've had some wonderful days out and forged some great friendships. After a while I dipped my toe in and occasionally led a ride myself. At some point, I decided to make a commitment to do a weekly ride on Tuesdays and open up this kind of fun casual ride to folks I knew through Ride Studio Cafe. Thus began the RSC Tuesday rides. FAIB has consistently made for the majority of participants, but we've had a few folks join the ranks of FAIB thanks to finding the group through RSC.

Since starting these rides, I have really looked forward to Tuesdays. I've tried to find new and unique lunch spots and to occasionally add a new route to keep things interesting.

I've also tried to keep the rides fun and social, adjusting the pace to accommodate whoever shows up, trying my best to make sure we don't ever leave anyone or make anyone feel unwelcome. It isn't always easy herding cats, but for the most part folks have followed my lead if I've tried to slow things down to keep the group together. I may have gently discouraged a rider who is significantly slower than the group average, but I admit that I've also encouraged others who may have initially been at the slower end of the group to keep coming back, and have seen them become stronger and faster, as a result. I'm rather proud that one of those riders recently finished a 300km ride!

But here's the thing. To me, it's not so much about the bike. It's a day out with friends, who happen to be on bikes. It's a lunch outing that we get to on our bikes. It's a destination with a nice view, or an interesting landmark.

And sometimes, there's a big climb in the middle, and sometimes, we let it hang out on one or two climbs and regroup at the top. But 80-90% of the time, we ride along as a group, chatting and having fun.

I'm going to continue to do my rides on Tuesdays from RSC and I'd love company, but please come because you want to support and encourage me and ride WITH me as I return from breaking my back. Please come because you want to spend a day out with friends who happen to be on bikes. I think we all have interesting things to talk about and share while we ride, and it shouldn't be such an effort to adjust pace to hang with a friend.

So when I say don't drop me, I don't mean regroup at the top of every hill. I mean let's ride together. We can still go for friendly KOM's once or twice on a ride on the likes of a climb like Haystack or Brimstone, but let's try to keep it together the rest of the time.

Thanks for reading this far.

This Tuesday I'm riding to Ryer's for lunch. Please join me for a fun day out.