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WINTER WEEKEND RIDES
During the winter months, most training rides should be endurance rides, not informal races. There are two reasons for this. One is that informal races tend to leave behind the beginning riders who, with encouragement, may be your best riding buddies and teammates a few months from now.The other is that informal racing with it's very high intensity effort, at this time of year will initiate changes in your fitness that will make you weaker and slower in the spring and summer when the big races and rides come around.
So, if you are not going to hammer each other into the ground on the next ride, what will you do? My suggestion would be to work on paceline riding with smooth transitions when riding on the flats. If your group is already skilled at pacelines, do a double paceline with space between the two lines and have riders ride up the middle. This is fabulous practice for group riding.
One the hills, ride your own pace on. In order for riders to be able to do their own pace on the hills, they have to know that the ride will regroup near the top of the hill. Otherwise they will ride hard for fear of being left behind. There are several ways to keep a group together in hills, and several ways not to. One really bad way is to keep riding slowly after the top of the hill. When you do that, the guys in back have to keep riding hard for a long time to catch up. By the time they do, they're pooped and will be dropped worse on the next hill. Also, you'll be frustrated about riding a long way slowly.
One okay but not great way to keep a group together is to have the leaders wait right at the top of the hill. This is okay, except that the leaders get cold and the slower riders feel left behind and alone for the length of the hill. A better solution is for the first people to the top to turn around, go back down, and encourage the stragglers. The very best way I know to keep a group together on a hill is for each stronger rider to adopt a weaker rider. When the hill tilts upward, the strong rider puts his or her hand in the middle of the weaker riders back (over the center pocket usually) and gives a gentle push. That way the stronger and weaker riders arrive at the top together, both having gotten a fine workout and no one has to wait at all.
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