An Unpracticed Paceline

When I arrived at our meeting spot up on the levee this morning there were just a couple of people there. Rob and Chad had zipped past without stopping a few moments before, so we waited to see if anyone else would show up and then headed out. It was looking like it would be a pretty typical Friday morning ride. Looks, however, can be deceiving. Soon we came upon a small group containing some relatively new riders, and somewhere farther down the road we caught up with Chad and Rob. By then that nice smooth paceline we had going was already looking a little shaky because the less practiced riders were, well, less practiced. When Chad and Rob got into the group the pace picked up another mph or two, and I could see that a couple of the new guys were feeling the extra effort. Naturally, there was some helpful mentoring going on, and we got to the turnaround intact. That's when things started to go downhill, though. Some of the new guys were a little slow about turning around and getting going again, and a gap opened up. The group in front obviously didn't realize they were leaving anyone behind, which wasn't too surprising since they were going only 22 or so. So I started to pull the second group, or so I thought, as gently as I could up to the front group. Unfortunately, I wasn't gentle enough. I looked back and could see they were still trying, so I told Chad what was going on and we eased up for a while so he could drop back and pace them back. So that was great, and everyone was back together, but next thing I know, Chad's rolling through to the front and pushing the pace again. Some of these guys were starting to struggle, so I was trying to keep the pace from getting too fast. For a while it was kind of comical. Gaps would be opening and guys would be surging to close them, and I was kind of in the middle trying to maintain a steady pace so the surges wouldn't kill off the new guys. I think we mostly finished more or less together, so that was good. I was riding behind one of the new guys who had ridden with us once last week, I think, and was noticing his bike. It was one of those Schwinns that has the number of speeds (I think it was 18) printed on the seat tube. It had the shifters mounted on the handlebar, the rear wheel had a solid axle, yet the seat post clamp had a quick-release, and there were yellow "caution" stickers all over it. However, the guy was doing fine in the paceline, although I could see he was getting pretty tired toward the end, so I think if he sticks with it and puts in the miles he'll probably be killing me by next summer.