TS wrecking Farm Team Ride - STOP DOING THAT

[Plawless]

Time to call all of us TSers out methinks. So as most of you know the Farm Team Ride is a well established NON-TS ride. It has as a goal being social and "not fast". It seems that more and more of us are dropping in on THEIR ride and then dropping THEM!!! this is 100% not cool.

I confess that this is one of my biggest pet peeves about people jumping in with groups. Each group has its own way of doing things. When you join a group you should ride how THEY want. Its like when we have A riders taking a rest day and then shredding the B ride - totally uncool. And frankly not very TS.

So if you are joining in the FT ride you have to go a FT pace. Period.

To further give you a flavour of this here are some excerpts of a few emails among some farmers where I have redacted the names and highlighted a few phrases but not edited the content.

Peter L.


Begin forwarded message:
From>[redacted]
Date: 10 April, 2013 9:10:40 PM PDT
To: prlawless@me.com
Subject: RE: Farm team Wednesday rides
Thoughts, wise TS leader….?

From] [redacted]
Sent: April 10, 2013 8:11 PM
To: [redacted]
Cc: [redacted]
Subject: Re: Farm team Wednesday rides

Great idea [redacted] . Farmers, I hope to be out there soon and then the pace will really slow down.
[redacted]

On 9-Apr-13, at 11:01 PM, [redacted] wrote:

What??? The pace has picked up???

Have the TSers thought about having a Wed am ride leaving from Pareto at 6 (ie not hills)? That may be a good way to provide an outlet for those that want to blast Wed am, the old farmers can come back and do the farm team ride, and we all meet for coffee at Mocha house. The hill group could be picked up by the first TS group. We should aim for a FT ride of <30km/hr.

I may have to come out tomorrow in the pace car with a megaphone, but it's probably just [redacted] leading the pack...

Thoughts?

[redacted]

Could someone fwd this to Peter?

On 2013-04-09, at 10:24 PM, [redacted] wrote:
I've been there, [redacted], you just had to look well behind you!

The extra loop through Beacon Hill was a great idea, I must remember to save a few more kilojoules for that extra loop...

And if farmers are not coming because of the pace it should be brought down a notch. Because if there has to be a farm team farm team, that is just too much redundant repetition.

[redacted]
On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 8:45 PM, [redacted] > wrote:



>
> Hi farmers
>
> I haven't seen a bunch of the ol' farmers out on a Wednesday ride for a while. The Wednesday farm team rides are so popular that it has been taken over by tripleshot and the tempo has increased. And then to top it off, last week I suggested we do the sprint as a lap around beacon hill, as it has started to get a little intense sprinting down cook street.
>
> This ride is the farm teams ride, and my apologies if there are farmers who are finding that it isn't the ride they enjoy anymore. Without [redacted] there keeping us all in line, things have run amuck.
>
> It had been mentioned that the pace picks up a lot now after we pick up more ts folks on the caddie bay hill. Should we try and bring it down a notch a re-establish when the sprint starts?

[redacted]
>

--

[barton bourassa]

Agreed!! Farm team ride, farm team pace. I have had their leader let me know when I am pushing things. I appreciate that and try hard to follow. I know what of you speak Peter. We have seen B riders with the C group and they just can't help themselves but push the pace. I enjoy the more social pace after hammering Caddy By 7 or 8 times on a Wednesday morning. I have noticed the pace of the farm team ride into Cook St Village has picked up quite a bit.

[Roland]

What about those Tripleshotters that wrecked the Spin Doctors' rides?

[Rolf]

Ha! Good point, Roland. And what about those Pro City guys who ride with Tripleshot but then have coffee by themselves, making faces at us?

I think I'm probably guilty of upping the Farming pace. I really enjoy the Farm Team vibe, yet I often feel my oats during Farm rides and get friskier than some. (Sorry, I'll put the poor puns back in the barn now.)

But then I strongly identify as a Farmer and regularly instigate Farm Team rides, despite the fact I'm usually clothed in a TS costume. Some "Farm Team" rides I've been on are just as pacey as a Tripleshot B ride. (Oh wait, maybe that's the point!)

I think the issues of what the ride is called and what group is behind it are less important than encouraging responsible and considerate group etiquette on every ride. If people are good about yelling Steady Up and regrouping on hills, rider awareness and communication should establish a pace appropriate for all comers.

This is probably more a discussion to be had among people who come out for the Farm Team. But I think people who ride both Tripleshot and Farm just need to be extra diligent on Wednesdays and Sundays (and soon pub Mondays?) in ensuring the group is riding as a no-drop group should and that nobody is being overly taxed.

[John D]

As Peter pointed out, the longstanding FT ride on Wednesday mornings is not a sanctioned TSC club ride. Therefore, play by THEIR rules. It's that simple.

JD (an occasional agrarian-parasite who has never been accused of pushing the pace)