Volunteers for road captains and Lieutenants

Hi all,

Now that we have more people coming out on the club runs we could do with a few more people to volunteer as road captains/lieutenants.

The obvious responsibility is to know the route for the day and not get lost! Other responsibilities are to make sure the the group stays together and know who's riding with you, look out for anyone struggling, take charge in the event of problems.

If you're interested please let me know.

Richard

Count me in, I'm happy to lead this Sunday's Group 2 Club Run.

hi there, just an idea from the past (oh no), when i rode with the Eavesham Whs the Sunday club run route was arrange by a different member of the club each week,, after the ride fred or bill or jim was asked to plot a route and next sunday we all followed him (fred/bill/jim.like sheep. it proved successful, the climbers chose a hilly route, the flat earth brigage went on the flat and the gung ho ride owt rider, well did just that..just a thought Geoff.

This idea of road captains/lieutenants is a bit alien to me.

In all the clubs (and chain gangs) I've ridden with (NOTE not 'for') we've never had them. Yes someone plans a route but then everyone has ridden looking out for everyone else. And some weeks there would be no route. There would be a discussion at the start as to how long we would ride for, a rough route worked out by someone who say 'ok I know where we'll go' but the route may have changed if we were going faster or slower than expected.

If someone had been struggling, the stronger riders have sheltered them from the wind, cajoled, encouraged, pushed... If the group splits there was an unwritten rule that we'd wait at the tops of hills or at the next junction. Frisky riders would race the climbs, sprint for the villages, but we'd all come back together. Unless people really were struggling, the group would split. Some weeks we'd all arrive back together, some weeks the group would split into two or three (naturally). Some weeks it'd be hilly and the heavier riders would drop back and other weeks the route would favour powerful riders - no-one was a group 1 or a group 2 rider, we were just members of the club... riders on the chain gang...

For many years I rode with a group that had no other link than we met in Richmond Park early on Sunday and rode into Surrey. I rode with these guys for 5 years or so and only know the surnames of two of them. No committee, no club jersey, no captains, no formal organisation, just a group of us who wanted to ride a bike who knew if we turned up on Sunday there'd be a ride and some banter.

Regards pre-planning the route, I think some like to know what the route is in advance. It also makes things a bit easier when there are up to 20 of us heading off for a ride, but I see you point. In this case though I tend to agree with Alec. Group 1 can look after itself, but group 2 does need more organisation.

I also think seeing the stronger guys go bounding off up hills and sprinting for signs (something we've all done) can be demoralising for some riders. This is fine for group 1 were the expectation is to have a reasonably challenging ride,and there is the collective experience to keep things together. Group 2 doesn't always have this collective experience and it does need somebody to keep it organised and know the route. Secondly, if someone is struggling on a ride, in group 2 it isn't always easy to keep the group together and the struggling rider motivated. So, having a second pair of hands who knows to help out is very helpful.