Corrals to start rides

[Elefantino]

I've started in a corral on one large, organized ride, the '01 RFTR. Fast corral went first (black dot people) and then others, descending order, all kept in roped-off areas until such time as they were allowed to proceed.

I think the idea of penning off people based on their anticipated speed is oafish, unless you are starting out on a one-lane or restricted roadway.

Our local club wants to start "corrals" for club rides and centuries. Again, I think it's oafish. You don't corral for 50 to 500 people.

Your thoughts?

And no one gets to post an Assos cow jersey. I already thought of that.

[Bruce K]

On very large rides some form of organization makes sense.

Trying to have significant numbers of faster riders negotiate through and around less experienced or slower riders causes congestion, frustration, unsafe practices (crossing yellow lines or passing on the right), and other mayhem.

That said, I don't think 50 riders qualifies as a large ride that requires this kind of organization/management.

Our local MS150 used to start by teams and fundraising levels followed by solo riders as a group. This caused some pretty hairy moments and an accident or two and was one of the reasons I stoppped riding in it.

BK

[Lifelover]

For centuries, I enjoy large mass starts. It just makes the it more interesting. Most centuries have done some coordination with the local town and are often lead out by police.

However, I can't imagine a mass start for regular group rides.

There is a larger group ride at a local LBS and every Saturday it's 100-200 people. It's lead out at an A++, A, B and C pace. We only wait about a minute between departures but of course the time gap is constantly increasing through out the ride.

From a traffic stand point, it is a lot easier to pass 4 groups of 25 riders than 1 group of 100.

What does oafish mean?

[dekindy]

I am not one of the fastest riders so I do my own corralling. I hang back until all the weekend warriors have gotten away so I don't have faster riders blasting by me. I prefer letting the faster riders get out first and I would be in favor of an organized system to do that on every organized ride.

You limited the scenario to a century. If you have an organized ride with multiple distances starting from the same place, IMHO a corral is the only thing that makes sense. This would be especially true if the disparity between the distances is great and you are trying to coordinate SAG stops and/or an events like a lunch, etc. at the end.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . on how it's done and when. When I was on the local MS ride committee we did try to start the different length rides at different times and it worked out because the slower riders were generally doing the shorter rides. But our local ride was never more than about 200 people and there really wasn't a crush to get going.

With larger rides I can see where it would make sense to try to organize in some way when you start--use a bullhorn to ask faster riders to get up front and slower riders at the back. Explain that "we don't want people running over each other" and I think most will understand and cooperate.

But having somebody tell me I must stand here until I'm told I can leave? Or having some sort of roped off area? It rubs me the wrong way, but I can see the logic of it if I'm at Hob On Wheels or Bike NY. But a local group ride with 50 people? Uh, sorry, but no. At that level it sounds more like maybe a ride leader with an authority complex . . .

BBD