Most, but not all.
3 hours at about 3.2 NP/kg and I was dropped. There are really fast people (and rides) in the world.
I acknowledged that, and said typical group ride. Of course there are very fast group rides out there.
My answer was partially meant as a joke as I feel SPB don’t get as much attention as it deserves. Thing is, IMO, in faster group rides it is important to have a (really) large anaerobic capacity. SPB is beneficial in that regard. When anaerobic capacity, or W’ if you like, is depleted you are basically toast. Interval length is not the most important factor in the equation, the accumulated time above your critical power (or FTP if you like) is.
W’ is available as a data field in the Garmin IQ shop.
I agree that it is important for experienced rides to teach / pass on their knowledge. And I can understand having to speak loudly due to wind noise. I also totally understand that group riding is a shared risk environment and poor / dangerous decisions others make directly impact other people in the group.
I don’t see how just yelling at someone is a constructive way to communicate to someone that what they are doing is disruptive or dangerous. All it does is get people amped up and mad or defensive. Maybe explaining to people that what they are doing is dangerous and why it is dangerous prior to getting to the point of ‘having enough’ and yelling at them would be a more constructive way to handle it?
Maybe that is difficult in a large group and could be why I prefer small groups / solo riding. One of my fondest memories is riding with 3 other guys for 3 hours and hardly talking. We all knew what we needed to do and had a nice smooth rotation going.
Sometimes getting dropped is just from not being suitable to a particular type of terrain.
My small group ride this am did a route that included several short steep climbs- one of the decisive climbs was only 40 seconds but I needed to average over 600w at 65kg to stay in. It’s at points like this where you just need those w/kg, unless you attack prior to these critical section to give yourself a buffer - could be risky though!!
Sorry, I think this is my fault, the average watt is 200. Normalized is anywhere between 230 and 250. The climbs are 2-5 minutes and I’m usually 120%-130% FTP on those climbs, so I’m going all out on them.
The descents are neutralized on our ride and with 30+ people per ride, I can’t really overtake without crossing the double yellow lines 
. That said I’ve been having a good time tail gunning, especially when the group is hammering into a sharp turn. I run 155mm cranks and am usually able to pedal through all the turns, it’s the best feeling moving up 20 spots on virtually no power 
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Yeah that’s my fault, the average power is 200 watts while the NP is usually between 230-250.
Yes, but not only mental - there is a lot of experience and “skill” involved too - how to stay smooth and not surgey, when to get on the wheel, how to shelter most for recovery, how close to ride, etc. I don’t think any sort of interval training can prepare you for that, you just need to practice by actually riding in a group.
How long are the rides?
Those are massive tires! And where are the Tongan guys on my ride? Oh, that’d be me
Thanks man. I’m in the Bay Area so what you wrote make s a lot of sense to me. We generally gave about 60+ folks show up for the Saturday group ride, we have A, B, and C rides that go on the same route. A & B are drop, albeit “B” has a regroup on a climb. C is strictly no-drop and is significantly more casual than B; A is around 21+ MPH, B is around 19+ MPH, C is 15+ MPH.
Sorry @jezza323 , it was my mistake. The ride is 200 watt average for 2.5 hours, 230-250 watt NP. We have a lot of rolling hills on the ride, steep descents and some flat areas are neutralized.
In a group ride you have to more or less stick to the rotation. So a) you can’t sag climb and b) you have to brake to avoid running into the back of the others on the descent. This destroys all your advantage. Our fast 2.5h Sunday group ride kills me for this reason.
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking as well. We have a couple steep descents but they’re both neutralized for safety reasons, I mentioned this earlier but we usually have 20-30 riders that all bunch up after the climb, so I can’t move up without crossing into oncoming traffic. They also neutralized a couple long flat sections for some reason, I need to ask them why.
An interesting note is that every time I get dropped, I usually end up with the four other largest guys on the ride, all over 6 feet and probably over 200 lbs too.
I’m seriously thinking about doing this, even knocking my training down to just the “Train Now” feature once a week and doing three group rides a week. I have so much to learn in group rides.
This is one of those things that I need to learn on group rides. On the trainer, I take in close to 100g carbs/hour on high intensity workouts. On the group ride, unless I time everything perfectly, I take about half to 2/3 that. Granted the group ride isn’t as intense as a workout and I’m not bonking per se, I don’t have that “sugar high” feeling that I do on the trainer.
So it’s 200 watts average power, but 230-250 watts normalized, that was my fault. And I checked out my ride files, I’m usually 25%-30% Z5 and above 
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I think I made too big of a deal about this. It’s only one guy and he’s not always on the ride. Very honestly, the vast majority of the people on the ride are aces and I enjoy riding with them.
I agree with this and I think I made it too big of an issue, it’s only 1 guy that yells at us and he’s not always on the ride. 99% over the other folks are awesome and I love riding with them.
I would put my Saturday group ride at anywhere between 3 and 4 w/kg. If it’s just us regular “B” guys it’s probably closer to 3, but that’s a rare occurrence. What happens more often than not is one of the cat 1/2 “A” guys deciding to take a break and hang with us “B” guys, and then proceeds to blow us all up. It’s not his fault, he’s going what he feels is tempo while it’s threshold (or higher) for the rest of us.