Thanks for all the feedback. I've just realised that when people were saying groups, they may have had different types of groups in mind!
Anyhow, I think there's a way through this. Obviously the most important thing you'll notice is that I've made the table below bigger, and most importantly I've added some rather attractive colours!
I've grouped everybody in sets of 6 from the bottom (top group is 7) which almost maps onto our current categories. I checked out PBs on the Figure 8 course. I discarded times if they were clearly out of date, eg Tommy's PB is clearly far slower than he would ride now, and Carl's and Andy's were clearly set when they were fitter/riding faster and I tried to average out the remaining credible times.
I'm expecting the D group to finish the course in around 53 minutes, and I've set each remaining group off at 3 minute intervals, ie at 3, 6 and 9 minute handicaps. If it doesn't look right, then just shout. It's hard to get these things right, but I think it sort of looks in the right area.
So, turning to how we ride and answering questions raised.
1. If we've got 4 groups, then it should work even if a few drop out or a few extra people say yes. We should still have enough in each group.
2. Will weaker riders get dropped? Maybe, but if you're a stronger rider and need to pull back a 3 minute gap on the next group up the road then you're probably a bit of an idiot to blow weaker riders out the back and lose the help they can give you with drafting. My TTT experience is that when I've got blown out the back its when I can no longer contribute and I'm looking to pull over and die anyway.
3. Should we ride solo but start in groups or ride as a group and take the time of the 3rd fastest over the line? I don't mind. I initially thought people were talking about the latter, but I think it would probably work ok either way. For both options, the team has to work together to maximise the chance of pulling back the handicap. It's just a question of whether we want to end with a head to head or working to get the 3rd fastest over the line? I'll leave it up to people to say which they'd prefer to go for. If it's all good and we want to do it again, we can try the other option next time out and see what we prefer.
4. Somebody asked about using Discord. Could be useful for each of the groups and I think we could set up new Discord groups for each of the A, B, C and D groups.
What do you think guys?
I think it may be better to ask
@bridgy to set up the Meet Up as I think most people are following him from when we were doing league races earlier this year.
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Or maybe I need to try harder 👅
