Drop it

I once heard that there are two kinds of liars,  the ones that say they quit, and the ones that say they never did.  What kind of liar are you?

When you start riding bikes it is very foreign, but yet almost second nature, because you did it when you were a kid and like they say... "It's just like...".  If you were anything like me you rode close to your house, then around the block, your area started getting smaller so you needed to go bigger.  You find a bike lane maybe a bike trail, you set a destination or a certain mileage that you want to conquer.  If you stick with it that grows and grows.  The more you ride the smaller your world becomes.

If you are lucky you have someone to ride with and challenge you, but lets be honest -it is for company.  None the less having someone else on a ride is priceless, it is safer, and it adds to the ride.  Because it is so much fun to ride with other people you start so seek out other like minded riders, and then it eventually happens.  The Group ride.  It starts in a mutual parking lot and the sizing-up begins before you even get the bike out of the car or off the rack.  Your level of Fredness is determined by choice of kit and if your bartape matches your saddle.  Don't kid yourself, it happens.

Everyone is real helpful.  They tell you how to pedal in a circle, how to relax on a climb, how to tuck into the person's draft in front of you.  They tell you how great you are doing, when they know you are about to have total and complete heart and lung failure.  You left your legs at the side of the road thirty mins ago, and the feeling in your back and shoulders is gone or did a power line fall on you and you are being electrocuted?

All of your new-found friends are talking, chatting, telling jokes, rubbing shoulders, and doing one quarter the work that you are pouring out of your short existence.  And then, someone flips a switch and all of your new friends become very very very small.  You are all alone and the people who were previously your long lost kin are now shrinking into the horizon and vanish.  You have been dropped, shelled, popped, shot out the back, you are a boat anchor going backwards.

It is a byproduct of group rides, you are either doing the dropping or you are being dropped.  Hang on, it is a bumpy ride.  Getting dropped will only bruise your ego, how you handle it shows your true character.  Group rides are a two-edged sword, they are great fun, but can be devastating.  Remember what "they" tell all Super Heroes.  Use your powers for good not evil.

It happens, it's happened to me (it still happens to me), has it happened to you?