Hi all,
Just signed up for the 2023 season.
I ride a gravel bike from my home in Heidelberg.
I’d like to learn and get experience in group riding this year.
My goal is to complete a 100km charity ride in August for Andy’s house in Muskoka.
The longest ride I’ve done so far is about 60km on gravel and the g2g with anna maes as a stop for a fritter.
In the winter I ride a Suny spin bike with the peloton app.
Welcome! The club has a regular series of group gravel rides that have typically run on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings and include different paces. The intermediate group, who is usually led by the friendly and capable @JimDaley, is a “no-drop” group.These groups can get spread out a bit, but regroup at junctions to keep everyone together.
There are also group road rides. In years past, there’s been a learn to group ride (which I found to be really good when I joined the club) if you aren’t used to riding in close groups. Like the gravel rides, the road rides have groups by pace, with the recreational and intermediate groups being no-drop. These groups tend to mostly stay in tighter groups to take advantage of the draft.
That’s just off the top of my head, but there’s some official docs in the FAQ section that are helpful if you haven’t already read them: Docs - Waterloo Cycling Club Forum.
Peter, welcome to the club. Our scheduled gravel rides will work really well to help you achieve your goal. Saturdays we generally ride between 60 and 70 km and often find ourselves at Anna Maes for a fritter! The Wednesday rides will start with shorter distances and ramp up to 50 - 60 km as the days get longer. We usually get going in March and we typically go as late as possible(ie December) in the fall. Keep an eye on the rides section of the forum. That is where we post the organized rides. Looking forward to having you join us.
Welcome! We have a great gravel culture here and a ton of great rides to choose from. 
Thx for the welcome.
I’ll check into the gravel rides and learn to group rides once the weather warms up. I’ll check back in 6 weeks or so.
I still need to ski 2 more times at Blue to break even on my 5x7 membership this year, so I’m still hoping winter gets here.
Welcome Petee
I was in your shoes last year. The learn to group ride is a must. Really informative and run by a bunch of awesome folks.
The gravel Wednesday’s are amazing. Relaxed atmosphere and all the guys are very approachable. I look forward to it every week and can’t wait till it gets going again!
Adam
