After waiting for four days to have a very innocuous post accepted to the local cycling group’s Facebook page asking for someone to post a Strava map of their regular ride I decided to just delete it. Their posting to their group page is riddled with really bad grammar, spelling, and formatting with absolutely zero information that makes sense.
Then, I watched a video of their premier local cycling event (which I’ve already paid for entering). It terrified me. That was when I realized that most of the people in this group probably would never appreciate the routes I post on Strava because, honestly, most of them don’t even ride daily. They are wonderful people with busy schedules I’m sure, but when comments on the group are things like “does that person still harass cyclists on that one road” go unanswered, and when I know for a fact that segments of their “regular” route are prone to motorists blowing well past the 45 mph speed limit, and when I know there are plenty of great, motor-less alternatives that for some reason they don’t even consider, well, I have to admit I am given pause.
The thing that finally made me completely give up seeking the whole group ride thing was this amazing video from one of my all-time favorite YouTubers, DKLEIN:
https://youtu.be/vcVowDPxtck?si=cS9d896LzEY8BDiW
He has the courage to call out all the reasons he finally just gave up on group riding all together. I share pretty much every reason he cites (even though I’m wasn’t an only child).
I also have another personal reason to not need to ride with a group. I bring my group with me. I am actually looking forward to live-streaming again because the people who self-curate into my live streams are the kind of people I really enjoy being around. Many of them are cyclists and technologists as well.