Group Captain
Lambert Vaes
Ride Leaders
Scott Pfaff
Kerry Duggan
Meets
The group meets at the normal start time on Saturdays and Sundays at locations announced via email. Also meets on weekdays at times and places announced via email.
To Join
Show up for the rides; there is no formal procedure or formal membership.
Protocol
A group that strives to maintain a very high level of fitness and enhance their capability to accelerate quickly and to maintain high rates of speed over long distances. These rides can be very fast, and do not necessarily make rest stops.
The group will usually start riding into the wind. It sometimes splits into two rides, one rather short and the other perhaps quite long; know which ride the person you are following is going on! If the group stops at a store, it will be 25 to 50 miles into the ride.
While the riding pace will vary, on some days there will be times when the pace of the ride will exceed 25 MPH. The overall average speed for the entire ride usually will fall between 19 and 22 MPH. To attain these speeds, the riders use several different pace line formations; riders should be comfortable with single and double pace lines and be able to ride echelons and rotating pace lines. Riders who cannot maintain the pace of the ride normally fall off the back of the ride; occasionally several will be able to form a second pack, but often a dropped rider will be on their own for the return trip to Gainesville. The group may stop if you have a flat or other mechanical problem, but do not count on it.
Occasionally (especially toward the end of the ride) some riders will sprint to be the first to reach city limits and county line signs. Sprint speeds will sometimes exceed 30 MPH. Sometimes the entire group will accelerate to rejoin the sprinters, resulting in higher speed levels for a period of time. When this occurs the ride will frequently split into several groups and single riders may be left behind. When the group splits you cannot count on it reforming.