Appalling Club Run

[DRM]

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this, on Sunday afternoon we got caught up behind what can only be described as the most shambolic club run I have ever witnessed, there was quite a large group of riders, some of whom seemed to think it's acceptable to ride 4 to 5 abreast blocking any chance of a safe pass, they were half wheeling each other, none of them checked behind to see what was going on to their rear, on setting off from one set of traffic lights there was nearly a huge pile up as a couple of them seemed to make a complete pigs ear of setting off causing a mass bunching/slowing/wobbling & panicky unclipping at the rear of the bunch, this went on for about 5 miles before we could safely get past, however more impatient motorists were flying past the following cars & the group in excess of 50mph in a 30 mph zone, which is far from right, and in itself downright dangerous, however if this lot had thinned out to 2 abreast, it would have given the following cars a chance to clear.
I had ridden this route that morning & I think if I had stumbled across this lot whilst out I'd have pulled up & given them 10 minutes to clear off as I would not want to be associated with this lot, or be on the receiving end of abuse because of them.
What made it worse was that they did seem to be quite experienced fit cyclists.
Surely this sort of thing is frowned upon by clubs.

 

[Biff600]

Bloody cyclists !!!

 

[DRM]

5 abreast? You must have some very wide roads.

That's the thing, they're not, it actually looked like Britain's slowest, longest bunch sprint

 

[Drago]

Half wheeling? How dare they do something safer than parallel positioning.

 

[Bobby Mhor]

Bloody Tour of Britain peleton

 

[Racing roadkill]

A wide bus is a short bus.

 

[DRM]

Half wheeling? How dare they do something safer than parallel positioning.

How is that safe on a group ride, one wobbles, clips wheels & there's a pile of bikes & riders on the floor

 

[Venod]

What club ?

We have had complaints about bad group riding in my club (I wasn't there but it's believable) this resulted in a Facebook message to all members reminding them of their responsibilities while riding and how a good group operates.
So an email to the club stating your concerns as a fellow cyclist might help.

 

[Drago]

Riding parallel the rider beside you starts to fall, you have no visual cues, you will almost inevitably go down with him. Watch any pro race pile up on tv to see this in action.

Safest compact formation is for the outside rider to half wheel the inside. They are close enough to communicate verbally with ease - good comms is great for a chat, but also good for passing info about hazards etc.

If the outside rider goes over it will not affect the inside rider as they will have moved past.

If the inside rider goes the outside rider has a better view and will pick up more/earlier visual cues and will have a much greater chance of avoiding going down with them.

When formation needs to be broken, narrow street, overtaking a line of parked cars, whatever, the outside rider is better placed to drop back into file AND they present much less hazard to the inside rider while doing so.

This has been experimented and tested at great length in the good old US of A by IPMBA for EMS patrolling - riding parallel is unsafe in any environment, particularly the road.

I mean, what do I know anyway? After all, I only have my own business teaching road and off road skills (the clue is in the Sig.) Old pilots, bold pilots, and club riders.

 

[DCLane]

Can I ask what club @DRM ?

I'm asking because my club organised a ride yesterday from Mirfield through to Sutton Bank. We had about 130 riders, which were split after about 30 miles into 3 groups. As far as I'm aware, although there were a lot of riders, it was pretty well behaved.

There were also a couple of big sportives on yesterday along with the HSBC City Ride in Leeds.

 

[pclay]

Can I ask what club @DRM ?

I'm asking because my club organised a ride yesterday from Mirfield through to Sutton Bank. We had about 130 riders, which were split after about 30 miles into 3 groups. As far as I'm aware, although there were a lot of riders, it was pretty well behaved.

There were also a couple of big sportives on yesterday along with the HSBC City Ride in Leeds.

130?

 

[DCLane]

130?

Yes. It's an annual fundraiser. Marshalling the first section's a bit difficult but we do our best to keep riders 2 abreast, single file if needed. Yesterday's wasn't great for a section of it, hence my asking, but we had it pretty well marshalled the rest of the way.

 

[colly]

See there will be a whole bunch of people on here who think it's quite amusing, and of course the post begs comical quotations you might get from drivers
(''bloody cyclists', 'don't pay road tax', 'no insurance ' red light jumpers etc etc).

But the reality is that twats like the ones you describe play into the prejudices that more and more drivers and pedestrians have around cyclists and cycling in general. ie they are all selfish, boorish, morons who pay nothing for the roads, never have insurance and should all pass a proper road test before being allowed out and so on.
As a result the dumb drivers who really don't give a flying f*** about cyclists safety will become even more anti cyclist and the growing 'anti' feeling towards bike users will (has?) become the norm.
The fools you came across are the kind that get all of us a bad name. Now I personally don't really care if other road users think I am an idiot on a bike who has delusions of being a TdF winner or whatever, but what I do care about is that we become seen as fair game. As a result close passes, and aggressive driving around people on bikes is seen as OK.

I'm not giving fools in cars a get out or offering any excuse for stupid or dangerous driving but the antagonism between other road users and cyclists has grown markedly in the past few years.
As an aside I personally think that as cycling has become more popular and ''trendy'' people who at one time would only drive have ditched the car, moved onto a bike and brought with them all the worst traits of car drivers. Chief of which is... 'F*** you mate the road belongs to me'.

The plain fact is that we have to share the roads and one way to make that safer is for all users to show a little understanding, respect and some simple give and take.

The tw***s you saw make the roads more dangerous for me and my grandkids.

 

[Ian H]

Even on club runs, riders are still individually responsible for their own behaviour.
There has been a return to more regulated clubruns in recent years, but club cyclists are just as capable as any others of behaving like complete idiots.

 

[DRM]

Can I ask what club @DRM ?

I'm asking because my club organised a ride yesterday from Mirfield through to Sutton Bank. We had about 130 riders, which were split after about 30 miles into 3 groups. As far as I'm aware, although there were a lot of riders, it was pretty well behaved.

There were also a couple of big sportives on yesterday along with the HSBC City Ride in Leeds.

I'd rather not put it on here, but this was going through Rothwell at around 15:30, it was a club not too far from you, there was also one rider from another club that's local to me & slightly further from you with them with them, I know they were nothing to do with the target demographic for the HSBC Ride Leeds.