Thursday B Rides

Details, updates, and organisation of social rides and club runs.
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Wiggobike
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Thursday B Rides

Post by Wiggobike » Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:33 pm

I’d like to venture an opinion about the Thursday night B rides - this is intended to be wholly constructive, I hope it will be taken as such.

Even in the few months that I’ve been taking part, the most noticeable thing about the B Ride and the summer Thursday edition in particular, is that the difference between our fastest and slowest riders is much greater than previously. This has been an organic process and highlights the success of our Thursday nights, which are both a platform for rider development and also a relaxing post-work run out with cycling friends in beautiful countryside. The B Ride has a demonstrably broad appeal and that’s a great thing, something that should be encouraged and developed.

The only downside is that it is now much harder for the B Ride to be all things to all men / women, as it has to pull off the very difficult trick of accommodating a wide range of average speeds. That in turn means that we often no longer ride as a group, which defeats some of the B Ride’s objective for many participants - it should provide a training ground for those who aspire to improve and move on to the B+ or A rides but it also needs to cater to those who have no such ambitions.

I think the obvious solution (though probably not the only one) is to split the Thursday B Ride into, say, B1 and B2 groups. We’d all do the same route but B1 could head out a couple of minutes ahead of B2 and go at whatever speed they like, probably dictated by the fastest rider. From recent experience I think that could well be an average of 18+ mph, maybe a bit more.

B2 could then set off on the same route at a more relaxed pace, maybe 12-14mph and enjoy a social ride with the opportunity to chat and enjoy each other’s company without worrying about getting dropped or holding anyone up.

It’s not easy to please everyone but maybe this is worth a trial for a few weeks?
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TimT
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Re: Thursday B Rides

Post by TimT » Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:41 pm

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks too!
And agree with everything you have said about introducing another slightly relaxed pace ride.
This should i personally be called something different to B1 & B2 as we also have the B+ ride which could get a little confusing when announcing which ride is leaving the club.
8-)
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Bunchie3174
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Re: Thursday B Rides

Post by Bunchie3174 » Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:38 pm

Another solution would be to split into 2 groups. One group doing the same route but in reverse. The whole idea about the Thursday rides was initially a paced ride. We are 'very' accommodating for a paced ride, slowing and stopping regularly.
As far as speeds go 18mph+ would put it in the B+ speed range (17-19mph)
Before we truncate the B into several iterations perhaps we should call the slower Thursday ride 'C'? This was an earlier idea which never took off due to low numbers. Clearly we need to be more pace specific. My long term aim for the Thursday B was to provide a stepping stone for riders, particularly youth riders, to improve pace in a group ride situation.
Finding routes, riding routes and battling my nemesis, the evil Dr Garmin
Wiggobike
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Re: Thursday B Rides

Post by Wiggobike » Fri Aug 03, 2018 11:23 pm

My understanding was that the C ride does / did a different route? I suspect that part of the attraction of the Thursday B ride is the route itself - the success of the initiative must be at least partly down to that. The scenery, the elevation changes and the overall distance plus the pleasure of riding in a social group is what makes it, for me at least.
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