Ready to Go?

Group ride at 6pm. It is 6pm and Perpetually Late Pete is not here. Let us play fill in the blank. 

He said he was coming. He _____________ (is not here and no one has heard from him / called to say he will be 15 minutes late / is always late).   

So you ________ (Give him 5 minutes / leave without him).

I suspect the way the first blank was completed influences the way the second blank is completed.  

What do you do? You know it happens. We all know Perpetually Late Pete. He is always late … or he arrives early but is never ready because he must true a wheel/fix a derailleur/too busy chatting … or he arrives on time but needs 15 minutes to get it all together.  

How do you handle these things? If they are always late? If they are always late but always call? If they are never late?

I know, it is easy now when it is just on paper. But in the parking lot there are many variables.  

There are those who say, ”We leave on time,” and that it is not fair that 10 people sit around because one person cannot get it together. I understand that. Calculate it out. Ten people waiting 5 minutes is 50 minutes of wasted time.  

There are those who say, ”It is just 10 minutes,” and that waiting is the only option. I understand that also.

How do you decide? My guess is if multiple people are always late, then the ride time stated is not the actual ride time and everyone knows it. Please, allow me to digress with a non-cycling example. In high school I had a friend like that. Let’s call him Red. Red was always late. We grew tired of picking him up because we would arrive, and it would literally be more than an hour until he was ready. His parents were nice but were talkers. When you are a teen, a prolonged conversation with a friend’s parents was not what you wanted on your Friday/Saturday night. You had other ideas of how to spend time, so we developed Red time. My memory says it was time plus 1 hour 15 minutes. That is when Red would really be ready. 

We started saying to him, “We are not coming to the door. Be at your mailbox by the road at 7pm, and if you are there we will stop and pick you up.” He was never there. We would make another pass at 8:15 and – surprise — he would be there. We were just kids, but we solved our problem. We did not waste time and he knew we were serious. He was always there the second pass. 

I am not saying to do this, but some handle rides that way. They do a short warm up loop and return to the start area. Red and I had no cell phone as that was many years ago. In current time and with current technology we can text and say, “We will do short loop 1 clockwise and return to parking lot to pick you up at xx time, or you can ride counterclockwise and meet us.”  That is easy.

But there is not always a short loop. And sometimes light/time/goals/plans dictate other things.  

It can be frustrating …. very. Many years ago, I would drive over an hour to ride with a group. Most drove between 15 and 40 minutes to get to the start point. One guy lived very close; he could ride his bike to the start in less than 10 minutes. He drove and was always late (or arrived at start time but took another 10 minutes to get ready). That was frustrating. 

Someone once said to him “This guy drives over an hour to get here, and he arrives on time.  How is it that you cannot do the same?” I think that was fair. Heck, there were multiple times someone called him at ride time, and he was still at home … we chose to leave on time and ride toward his house to meet him and when we arrived at his house, he was still not ready. Frustrating.  

How do you handle it? A small group of close friends? Maybe you wait or maybe you are close enough to tell the guy to catch up or to take another route.  

Normal club ride that is public? Are you really going to wait on one person? Or maybe one person waits for the late one (if they are both fast) and will catch up?  

Me? I believe we are riding when we say we are riding. If you are a frequent abuser, then we will leave you. If you do not abuse the start time, we might wait for you (if we know you are coming).  

How do you fix this? I do not know. My solution? I think people have different understandings of what start time means. Some think if the ride is at 6, that means meet at 6 and chat for 10 minutes then eventually ride. They assume they have time to pump up their tires while chatting. Others think 6 means roll out of the parking lot at 6. 

When I plan a ride and it is important to get on the road promptly, I do not say ‘group ride at 6.’  I might say, “meet at 5:45, wheels roll at 6.” Clarity. Clarity is good. Why would we meet 15 minutes before? Well, if you want to know the route, want to chat – whatever. In our current society there really should be a safety meeting before the ride. I suspect your club insurance wants that. Something simple like:  We will do this route at this pace. We will stop at these places for water and to regroup. There is little traffic on this road, but it is open to traffic so be alert. There are many potholes near the church on Main. We will not be using a paceline down that road so everyone can be alert and see the road in front of them. Things like that. But – regardless – setting a meeting time and a ‘wheels roll’ time provides clarity.  

Maybe I am too specific. A friend once said that if you are not 15 minutes early to his (my) ride, you are already late. He was not entirely wrong. I am usually ready early. I want to get ready and get on my bike and make sure it is working. Nothing is fun about realizing your brakes need adjusting or you have a flat with 1 minute to start time. I do not want to be that guy. Most of the time my bike and self are working well, so if I am there early and ready, often I warm up. 

Yes, the older I get the more that is useful. I am not recommending that. I am asking you how you handle those things. Share your wisdom…or your frustrations…or both. It might help us to find another way…or you might add a great bit of humor to our day.  Please – share.