If your rides with several friends are spent cruising and talking, that’s fine. Nothing like a bike ride for some quality socializing.
But you and your buddies can also benefit from getting organized during part of the ride. Your fitness and riding skills will improve. Here are four tips:
---Form a paceline. You’ll go faster and be safer in a paceline than when spread out across the road. Numerous fitness-increasing activities begin best from a standard paceline.
---Take short pulls. Don’t stay on the front so long that your speed tails off. That’s like doing a solo interval at an intensity too great for your present fitness. Each rider should pull for 30 seconds to 2 minutes at a consistent pace, then swing off.
---Rest at the back. Draft correctly so you don't exert nearly as much effort at the rear of the paceline as at the front. After dropping back, move over behind the last wheel before a gap opens. Find the area of maximum shelter. Remember, bends in the road will move the slipstream on a windy day. Recover and refresh with a sip from your bottle or a bite of food.
---Stay together on hills. Even short climbs can doom a paceline’s cohesion. The trick is to keep intensity only slightly higher than on the flats. If you’re on the front, ride at the pace your friends can handle. You've done a great job when everyone crests the hill together.