B rides- a suggestion

[Bosie]

Tripleshot caters for all levels of riders. To that end, we have designated "A","B" and "C" rides:

"A" rides are drop rides and if you leave the parking lot on an A ride, no one is expected or expecting to wait for you. If you have a mechanical, the group may stop to help, but its incumbent on you to be self sufficient and be happy to solve your problem on your own.

"B" and "C" rides are "No drop" rides. This means that no one should be dropped unless expressly by their own consent. The B rides are vaguely self seeded, but often will have a mix of rider strengths. It is incumbent upon everyone in a B group ride to look after the weakest riders, make them feel welcome and help them. The overarching Tripleshot ethos is: "The most important rider in the group is everyone else".
If you join a B group after being dropped by an A group, you are obliged to follow the rules of the B ride.

One of the challenges with the varied strengths in B (and C) rides is that sometimes stronger riders drop weaker riders whilst riding at a pace that they feel is "easy" or "soft pedalling"- especially on hills (Blenkinsop, Ash, Caddie Bay, OB Hotel, KGT). This makes it hard for the weaker riders to catch back on after "steady" has been called and makes it impossible for them to recover. On the B rides after the steeper hills (Ash, KGT, Caddie Bay) there is generally a "foot down" policy to help alleviate this problem. On the smaller hills, this foot down policy is obviously not necessary, but slowing is.

I would respectfully like to make the following suggestion to help eliminate the problem of the stronger riders gassing the weaker riders on the hills:

If you are a stronger rider on a B ride and find yourself on the front when "steady" is called, drop to the back and help the weakest riders. Pace them up the hill, find out whether there is an issue you can help fix. This approach might go a long way towards solving the problem.

[toddhatfield]

Well said, Craig! Thanks for posting this.

[Paul Chris]

Craig thanks for these timely reminders for all of us.

And THANK YOU for mentioning one of my favorite
" Peterisms " Peter Lawless's words of WISDOM.

"The most important person
on my ride is everyone else."