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Greg,
How about the ones that take a pull and slows the pace down(or just don't know) but continue riding up front and wonder why everyone has pick up the pace going past him? What gets me is the rider sitting near the front, right off your wheel in a chase. You pull out after a hard turn but he sits up and not bridge the gap. Guys like that screw up the pace and kills you because now I have to do twice the work to latch back on. That guy will get a little crap from the others. Who knows, may be he's tired, that means he needs to be in mid pack.
What you described happens all the time. The inexperience riders get excited thinking he must shift or take a hard pull, but in reality, speed only needs to maintain. That's why I like the riders to just come on through without much drama and take their 10-15 pedal strokes and pull out smoothy. Problem is, everyone is looking at their damn heart rate, speed, cadence, output, and who knows what, and they don't even race. They should know if their speed has gone up even 1/2 mile just by the feel of their pedaling rotating.
The couple of groups here are pretty good and smooth but race pace fast. Oh yeah, they rip off the front when the opportunity comes up. There's always a sprint at the end. Its a long gradual hill that's about 1.5 mile long. I used to sit in all the time for the last 2-3 miles and let the hammer heads kill themselves and go after the sprint. No one really cares, its just for fun. Still, I managed to never win but one time in over 20 years of riding with them. Now, I am lucky if I finish.
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