Sitting in

dulldave

I don't really do many sportives but I did the Bangor Coastal Challenge with my girlfriend last weekend. Well organised and a lovely day (Thanks NDCC).

I'd stopped to do some stretching (knee problems) and my girlfriend (at my age I should say partner I guess) whizzed past. Her and another guy were riding at the front of a group of about 20 riders. After finishing my stretches I thought I'd try to catch them up. It took me a while but when I did, her and the same guy where still at the front.

It turned out that they'd been riding for about 15 miles (since the feed) with only 4 riders out of about 20 taking turns. I joined them and did my bit on the front. In the last few miles 3 of the riders who'd sat in for over 30 miles in that group decided to attack and ride away to the finish.

What's that all about? Is this how sportives work?

If you're looking for a time on your sportive, try to take a turn on the front. If you're not strong enough to do so then that's fair enough. Just be aware that your time is thanks to the people who dragged you there. Riding away from them when they're tired from dragging your ass round the course is pretty rude. If you've got energy to ride away you've got energy to take a turn.

You know who you are.

batch78

'Looks for shrugging shoulders emoticon'

It happens, lots.

Don't take it personally, your aware of their shortcomings, just ride your ride and take pleasure in knowing yours is an honest time.

Can't say I've ever been towed without towing and generally ride solo on sportives, c'est la vie. :?

JSB24

Stop whinging, thats how cycling works. If you dont like it you/they have several options, including increasing the speed and losing them, or asking the rest of the group to do a turn.

jgsi

Go race instead, much better.

Snoppy

I think stronger riders are quite happy to sit on the front without wanting others to take a turn on the front. However I think it is only right that if your in a group you should do somework.

If I am in a group and I do not take a turn I see it as other that do will think less of me, just as you might do dulldave. So I make it a point to do my bit. It does not sit well with me if I dont take my turn and do some work but thats a personality thing.

If riders want to sit in and wheel such then thats up to them. It is quite hard to say if it is down to them being lazy, not strong to take a pull or poor work ethic. It could be one of them or all.

FransJacques

Why all this passive-aggressive disorder? See your doctor?

If it bugs you at the time, just wave the other through. Make a joke about time to stare at their butts or something, Or that you need a gel. It's a good way to make buddies on a ride, share the work. Key thing is to communicate at the time. They might be totally knackered by your pace, which you can feel good off of. Or they might not know the etiquette to come through. If fhey're strong like you you can have a nice tow for a while behind them.

Case study, one guy coming with us to the etape this year we met a few summers ago on sportives, we did 3 in a row and always saw him and he worked with our group and generally a dude. So we swapped details and he's coming to France.

So it's not a big deal, just reach out to your fellow riders and see how they're doing. It's not the opera where you have to shut up!

Turbo Man

FransJacques wrote:

If it bugs you at the time, just wave the other through. Make a joke about time to stare at their butts or something, Or that you need a gel. It's a good way to make buddies on a ride, share the work. Key thing is to communicate at the time. They might be totally knackered by your pace, which you can feel good off of. Or they might not know the etiquette to come through. If fhey're strong like you you can have a nice tow for a while behind them.

+1

3 of the guys I now cycle regularly with I met doing sportives last year, and realised they live about 10 miles from me and cycle out every weekend. It's also true that many people I chat to on sportives I will probably never meet again, but as the old saying goes "It's good to talk." And smile. Sportives are fun, if you want to take it seriously then, as one person said earlier, go race.

dulldave

JSB24 wrote:

Stop whinging, thats how cycling works. If you dont like it you/they have several options, including increasing the speed and losing them, or asking the rest of the group to do a turn.

Yeah I went to the front and increased the speed but this spat out one of the poor guys who'd been doing a lot of the work as he was so tired. So I decided to bin that idea.

I'm perfectly aware how cycling works thanks but thought that kind of behaviour was reserved for actual racing not fun runs.

I guess I was wrong. I'll know better next time.

freehub

Some people treat a sportive as a race though.

Anonymous

You have to ride your own ride on a sportive. If you feel you are doing all the work and no one is coming through, peel off or just have a grunt and leave them.

dulldave

freehub wrote:

Some people treat a sportive as a race though.

So I see.

Chrissz

As previously stated - ride your own ride!

If others want to sit in - no bother (it won't slow you down at all). You will have the sattisfaction of knowing you drove a whole bunch along - they will know that they wouldn't have got a decent time if it weren't for you!

Ask yourself - why do YOU ride sportives?

dulldave

Chrissz wrote:

As previously stated - ride your own ride!

If others want to sit in - no bother (it won't slow you down at all). You will have the sattisfaction of knowing you drove a whole bunch along - they will know that they wouldn't have got a decent time if it weren't for you!

It appears that quite a few people have replied without reading my post properly. Perhaps I shouldn't have waffled on for so long.

My beef is with people who sit for miles and then (try to) ride away in the last few miles when they've been drafting the whole time. I don't really mind if people want to hitch a ride without being able to take a turn. But I have to admit, having 16 out of 20 people in a bunch doing it is a bit pathetic.

Chrissz wrote:

Ask yourself - why do YOU ride sportives?

There are 2 types of sportives for me. The ones that will be a challenge for me to even finish. I've actually only ever done one of these. The rest are just another excuse to get out on my bike. I've never been very interested in my time as I'd need to ride alone for it to be my time. I'd do a time trial for that kind of thing.

Chrissz

Fair enough - giulty as charged Didn't read your post properly!

As stated - ride off from them? Again, you know that your time is YOUR time - unassisted.

I usually ride sprtives with an aim of achieving a time/av. speed. I'll happily work with others to achieve this but it is always with people i know ride at a similar speed/level of effort.

A bunch of us did one a couple of months ago and found ourselves leading out around 30 other riders - we made a quick deission to drop the group and crack on

bigmat

I've ridden in groups in sportives and not done any work - you tend to get the same couple of tough guys on the front doing all the work and not peeling off to let others come through, i'm hardly going to sprint round the outside to pull a stint on the front so I'll usually just sit in until the group is going slower than I could on my own then "attack" off the front and find the next one. I appreciate that it could appear that I'm being lazy, but I'd rather work with a good group (and really prefer the very rare occasions where this is possible).

dulldave

MatHammond wrote:

I've ridden in groups in sportives and not done any work - you tend to get the same couple of tough guys on the front doing all the work and not peeling off to let others come through, i'm hardly going to sprint round the outside to pull a stint on the front so I'll usually just sit in until the group is going slower than I could on my own then "attack" off the front and find the next one. I appreciate that it could appear that I'm being lazy, but I'd rather work with a good group (and really prefer the very rare occasions where this is possible).

The group is either going too fast for you to take a turn or it isn't. Unless the tough guys are constantly faster than you, at some point the group comes down to a level where you can ride on the front.

It sounds to me like you'll take a tow until the guys on the front are spent and then leave them. All it takes is a wee shout to see if the guys on the front want a rest. If you give them that rest they may get back to a speed that you couldn't manage alone.

A good group doesn't happen on its own.

Rodrego Hernandez

I towed a large group around the magnificat for about 50 miles and just opened up on the last home stretch to finish alone. Get fitter and you'll be able to do the same

dulldave

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

I towed a large group around the magnificat for about 50 miles and just opened up on the last home stretch to finish alone. Get fitter and you'll be able to do the same

That was the web forum equivalent of showing me your penis, and was about as useful and palatable. Thanks

TimB34

Don't forget that a lot of the riders in a sportive could be very inexperienced, especially at riding in a group.

I am certainly in that category, to the point where I don't really know when to take a turn and how long or hard to ride on the front. Don't worry though, I only do one or two sportives a year so I doubt I'll be in the same group as anyone on here, ever!

One thing that I don't quite get is how the bunch rotates (ideally/theoretically). It seems that the most efficient way for the riders on the front to change over is for the lead riders to move to the outside and ease off, so that someone can speed up, move up the inside and take over while the former lead rider(s) can drop to the back and start moving up again?

But how does this fit with all the above stories of sitting on the front for X miles? Are you waiting for someone behind to come up the outside, or come up the inside, or even waiting for someone to say "my turn" as a prompt to peel off?

mabarbie

I'm new to sportives having only done the Etape Caledonia before. Sitting in wasn't really an option as it was up and down for the first half and people seemed to be doing their own thing.

However, I entered the Flat out in the Fens sportive last weekend and got myself in to a nice little group near the beginning which then split. I chose to go with the front group and did my turns with them, people peeling off the front and joing the back, until I couldn't take any more and dropped off. After a feed station the group that I had left behind had caught up, but suffering with numbness in my feet and a muscle strain in my left knee, it was all I could do just to hang on!! I still tried to do a few turns at the front when I felt a bit better.

I think that everyone should try to do a turn, as it helps everyone else, but at the end of the day if you have got people just wanting to sit in, there is not a huge amount you can do.

The best thing about the weekend in the fens was realising my limits in drafting and riding at the front, I never realised it was so tough, but I did find it rewarding. So long as I find what I do rewarding, I couldn't care less about others and what they do.