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After almost 3 years of cycling, I’ve finally joined a local group ride. Why didn’t I do this sooner?
FTP Test https://www.strava.com/activities/9957576898
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Maybe you’ve heard group rides make you faster they introduce you to new places but they require you to go into public and interact with people so naturally as an introvert I’ve avoided them like the plague but thanks to my new friend Kevin down there I’ve started attending a
Local group ride and it wasn’t because of his patient persistence it wasn’t because of anything he said it’s because he absolutely kicked my during a casual ride around our neighborhood I’m still very new at the group ride thing and I’m still awkward unfortunately but I’m also faster on solo rides now too
Morning which is weird right what is it about group rides that makes us Faster I’m going to share a lot of my data and power numbers including my latest FTP in this video but there are some data I don’t want to share with the world and that’s why this video sponsor is surf shark I like to spend my time on
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Sir shark for sponsoring this video okay now let’s get back to group rides why and how they make you faster I’m not ashamed to say I’m afraid of group rides specifically I have three fears number one drafting how are you all so close to
The bike in front of you and how is this somehow normal number two is maybe a niche fear but I feel like it’s becoming more and more common and that is I don’t want to be the guy to show up to a group ride with a camera but it’s kind of my
Job and number three is probably the one that scares me the most required social interaction it’s not that I don’t like people I do like people I am a people it’s just that unlike these videos that are scripted real life is live and my
Brain loves to turn off as soon as I say hello to someone new before Kevin introduced me to the ponies ride here in Los Angeles I did have kind of like a soft introduction to group rides the first was Diamond’s cookie Fondo last year Phil asked me to go film some
B-roll for his YouTube channel at the event and he really did me a favor because if it wasn’t a job I probably wouldn’t have gone and at the end I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed riding with new people and the second kind of soft intro was when I was in
Australia filming my Steve Street series my old coach and the founder of RCA cam Nichols invited me up to NSA for a ride he had like a crazy Steep Street he wanted to show me coins land got your M yep but the beginning of the ride was
His local Bunch ride and that was my first time really riding in a pace line and those two experiences kind of showed me that drafting isn’t as scary as I thought it would be nobody yelled at me for having a camera s i what the word uh
You taught me the word wanker and people on a group ride are way easier to talk to than people at a random party all you have to do is ask them if they like disc breaks or Rim breaks but going on those rides did introd me to a new fear
Getting dropped and he’s off the Coler effect occurs when an inferior team member performs a difficult task better in a team or co-action situation than one would expect from knowledge of his or her individual performance now I don’t love being called an inferior team member but
I do have to agree with the effect the ponies group ride goes through Griffith Park which is like my stomping grounds it goes up Mount Hollywood Drive down fendell back up fendell these are roads I’ve literally ridden hundreds of times but never as fast as when I did the
Group ride before the pony’s group ride my best time up Mount Hollywood Drive was something like 19 minutes and now all of a sudden every time I was riding I was sub6 minutes now that’s not the front of the peack in the group there are plenty of people that are way faster
What’s your fastest time 12:45 and that’s a good thing because one of the things they found with the Coler effect is the greater the diversity of skill level in the team members or the people participating in a co-action event like riding in a group the greater the the lower level team
Members were lifted up I guess it’s kind of like real estate like you don’t ever want to be the most expensive house on the Block uh because the more expensive houses will raise your value your your property value yeah apparently that’s what happens with group rides too yeah I
Think they’re great I think it really worked for you so doing them once a week is perfect cuz essentially that’s your maximum effort session and it’s socializing and you get so much benefit from that social aspect because you don’t want to let people down like you
Want to prove you want to show that you’re a good writer as well so that’s that’s why you can push yourself harder is because you’ve got this pressure to perform or you’ve got to hold that wheel for an extra bit longer because that person is stronger than you so you’re
Like I want to prove that I’m just as strong you need to push to prove to yourself and to other people that you are strong and you are capable of doing hard efforts I also feel like I’ve I’ve uh broken through a new level of like accepting pain while I’m writing Oh
I thought like this is my threshold of how much it can hurt while I’m going and then I’m like oh I can do this it’s so mental the being able to suffer if you just think you can do more you can do more like it’s unreal what your body can
Handle you just going to be how to cope with it mentally like your muscles are never going to give way but yeah when you’re riding with people you’re not looking at power so you’re just focusing on the person in front of you so if you’re going above
What you think you can do but you can’t see it then you just keep going like there’s no expectation there or there’s no mental challenge where you look down and I’m doing 400 watts I should be doing 350 like you just go and do it it’s it’s good to push yourself and good
To do some different writing as well like we’ve been working together for a while now so that’s how you mix things up a bit like I can give you different types of interval sessions and try and mix it up but going to do a group ride there’s no spe set structure like one
Week you might go up one climb or go 10 minutes or 5 minutes like it’s so variable it’s going to give you benefit each week just because there’s variance in what you’re doing now it’s not like the group ride gave me some magic power I didn’t have before it was power I had
Built through my training I just didn’t know I had it and chasing other people showed me what I had that has translated into other rides check out this whiff race I did before starting group rides I had never held 300 watts for more than like 10 10 or 12 minutes and if you’ve
Been watching my channel you know I have a goal of one day getting a 300 wat FTP and to do that you have to hold more than 300 watts for 20 minutes climbs that you do in those group rides like you do some long climbs like 10 15
Minutes so that sort of longer sustained effort where you have to dig really deep and it’s a maximum effort it’s so good for you and it proved on Sunday when you did the test that being able to do those long sustained Max efforts it pays off
When you go on do a long 20 minute effort for example I got a 5minute test and then a proper 20 minute FTP test to do I’m not going to record any more than this I mean I’ll record using the insta 360 but I’m not going to talk to you
During the test cuz I got stuff to do now if you’re not a cyclist and you’re watching this for some reason um thank you I’m surprised you made it this far but welcome FTP is to cyclist what saying like what do you bet Ben Pro is
To gym people kind of like a vanity metric and a 300 W FTP for a lot of people is a goal that we that we just want to break that barrier kind of the most accepted way to calculate your FTP is to take 95% of your 20 minute
Power done and on this test for 20 minutes I had an average of 315 Watts way more than I’ve ever done before so if you take 90 5% of 315 you get an FTP of 299 Watts you know the funny thing is if I would have just called up my new friends
From the group ride and asked them to Pace me during my effort I would probably have a 300 watt FTP right now so I guess the real power of group rides is not the Watts you produce but the friends we made along the way sorry I had to
29 Comments
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So group rides mostly benefit those with fragile egos that can’t handle being dropped because they measure their worth by comparing themselves to others and their fitness.
Looks like you did ObiObi while in Queensland… but did you do Postman's Track??? 😉
A lot of yr extra speed is through drafting though… So its not exactly accurate and a way to cheat a high FTP.
299 is still 50% more than me : ) but alright, I not doing group rides either.
Great video pal I love Ponies haven’t been in a while but coming back soon🤙
Great video! Group rides with people stronger than you are sooo good for increasing your fitness. As long as they aren’t too much stronger or it’s soul destroying as you get droppppped! I find the time goes so much quicker on group rides than by myself too! ❤
Great video. So easy to watch and process this information. Thanks and def left us looking forward to the next one. Your YouTubing FTP just broke 400 with this one!
At certain size of the group and traffic, it might be good idea to have a SAG car behind to escort the group. You never know a texting teenager or a distracted trucker who's having a bad day might come from behind.
I credit my weekend group rides for helping me improve. But, socially they are pure CRAP. I think that there are less than 10 words said amongst the lot of 30 guys each ride. In the year I've been going I think I have less than a handful of "hellos" or "good mornings" etc. There are far too many egos, attitudes, thou is greater than you personalities on local bike shop group rides IMO.
No no, not 'wanker', it's wankah.
Amazing video! As an introvert addicted to a very social sport, I can relate to this dilemma hahahaha. I love cycling but group rides is kinda intimidating.
That 90's-ish intro with Comis Sans at the beginning 😄😻
Group rides do not build fitness anywhere near like solo rides. That is an objective fact measurable by time in power zones: look at how much effort is in zone 1 on a "zone 2" group ride versus a true zone 2 ride where you are spending 90% of time in zone 2. The people that compete around me that struggle the most with gaining fitness are the dudes that do the same group ride week to week, getting towed behind others, when they could be out doing structured workouts or riding solo and actually putting in effort. If you're drafting, you're definitely not gaining fitness and are more likely to be stagnating or losing fitness from copping out of real work.
Cycling is considered an individual sport. A group ride doesn’t really change that. I did a group training ride for three years straight and no one ever talked to me, other than alerting me to turns ahead thinking I was a newbie. You seem to be a very talkative guy, so that’s why you made friends on the ride. If you don’t belong to a racing club, no one will actually talks to you. Unless you can’t ride a wheel properly, or do dumb aggressive moves, than you will get talked to. 😅 Try the Montrose ride in Pasadena on Saturday mornings. They meet at “trader joes” on Mission st. In South Pasadena. The fast ride starts at 8am at “Descanso Gardens”, but easier to pick them up in South Pasadena at 8:30am when they ride past. This is where most riders wait to join in. You need to be very experienced to ride with this group. There is a 7:45am group with senior riders, slower pace, but still fast. A second fast group at 8:10am, I suggest this group. Double check that time. This ride started with the Montrose club back in the late 70’s with just a handful of club riders, I was one of them. If you want to find out more history of the ride. Talk to Steve Lebanski, of “Open Road” bike shop in Pasadena. That could make a very interesting YouTube video. The history of the “Montrose Ride”. Another famous ride is the Tuesday & Thursday evening training group ride at the Rose Bowl, starting at 5:30pm ending soon, at the end of October, starting again in Spring, at daylight savings time. This ride has been going on since the 60’s. Another opportunity for a historical video. Check them out, you will get even faster. 👍🏻👍🏻
Besides all the motivation from wanting to follow other people and not having moments of coasting and relaxation, adrenaline is a hell of a natural drug. Actually competing against people gives you a massive physical boost over riding by yourself.
Watch out for bad ones.. just stay with the one who follows cycling etiquette..
Inspirational and I can totally relate! Keep it going!
3:10 i do like people, I am a people😂
Hello I am Merida. I like your creative content very much. I hope you can have a contact information to communicate with me.
Hey man can you try to bike in black wall in the philippines i think its 30 plus i wanna see you try that
C'mon where is the double like button, good job and enjoyable content, thanks!
Im in DTLA… when are these rides?
Just did my first imperial century around beautiful Fall colored coastal Maine after the group ride (my 2nd ever) got me through my first 55 mi. NO WAY my legs would have felt so fresh after 55 mi riding solo. Today was the first day after the 3 day manhunt for the mass shooter that took 18 lives in Lewiston, ME Wednesday. The group ride really showcased the hospitality, strength and beauty of both the people and land of Maine.
Do you know Rowan Barret ! go see is strava KOM all around the word … i know him he live in my area montreal Canada
Rowan Barrett | Cannondale Échelon p/b 4iiii
Without a doubt this puts into words what one not so savvy bicyclist cannot convey to others @ riding in groups, as well as safety in numbers! #crushms
Great video! I personally fall on the other side. I feel group riding actually over time makes me slower. The constant need to race each other and always go “hard” mentality really leads to tough plateaus. 80% of my riding is zone 2 and always focus on keeping steady constant pressure, something most group rides lack. I can’t count how many time a group ride has been advertised as “steady” “zone 2” yet as one of the strongest there I am repeatedly pushing Vo2 numbers up every little riser etc…
Look at all those Fat Cake riders at 03:27 ! 98% of my rides are solo–it's all about that time alone to clear my head–and I've gone on two group rides with FCC. (Turned into solo rides for me as soon as we hit the hills, but that's another story)