What is up with new riders?

Finally back online after a long reprise due to work and family commitments. Also finally back on the bike and riding semi-decent.

Anyway, on the weekend rides on Saturday and Sunday morning there were new riders. Eveyone in the group is always happy to have new riders on the ride and generally very receptive to new people in the group, but why do they always act like they have never done a group ride.

On Saturday we had a guy join the group, seemed like a nice guy, but when the group was starting out he was attacking from the back of a group of about 35 people. Sure, there is no harm in doing this, but on an average group ride it is only going to excite others in the group. The other side is that attacking over the yellow line constantly on a course that he obviously did not know isn't the wisest thing to do.

So we had to take things into our own hands and split the group by attacking and get the guy isolated. We dropped the guy on the way back into Loveland (after the tracks and before Dallasburg on the return of the Beer Bottle route). He seemed like a strong rider and is more than welcome to the group if he can learn to ride with a group.

Sunday there were two guys that were unknown and new that were annoying several people in the group. The first half of the ride was pretty mundane and relatively slow. On the 2nd half we started to pick things up, but these two wouldn't rotate through the line, choosing to punch tickets at the back of a group of about 9 riders. Nothing will annoy people faster than punching tickets on the tail end of a ride, especially if you don't punch tickets properly and keep jumping out when you get to about the middle of the line.

So, again, we had to provide some education and dropped them up Zoar back into Loveland on the tail of the Yellow Box route.

Honestly, we like to have new riders, but maybe it would be wise to get to know the group before you start doing stupid stuff in the group.