Ins-n-Outs

Coming off my road ride yesterday I ran into Cal & Rachel (I'll be riding with them at the 12Hrs of Pinelog), and the subject of the Tues group road ride came up. I knew that road racing has a lot of strategy involved (moreso than mtn biking), but I had no idea of the nuances of a leisurely group ride. Here are a few nuggets that Cal & Rachel passed on.
For starters, it is important that I learn who is who...in other words, who are the fast people. The reason for that is, if you're getting ready to take a pull at the front and one of those fast people is behind you then you don't want to take a really hard pull or run the risk of getting dropped when it comes time for that fast person to take the next pull.

That one certainly makes sense. I had already seen the folly of taking too hard of a pull. I was planning on putting a cap on my pull efforts, and this little bit of info was just further reinforcement.

The next thing is, there is also some...well, I'll call it inter-personal conflicts. Apparently, there are some bad feelings between some people on the ride and arguments can ensue, etc, etc. Now why is that important? You don't want to be behind the people who are sparring, as you might inadvertently get dropped when one of them 'sits up' to get back at the other one...or some other childish act.

People. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em.