As my riding and bike-handling skills have improved, I've been doing
some centuries and metric centuries with small groups of between 3 and
6 riders from one of the bike clubs to which I belong, not always the
same people. We are not skillful enough to ride in a paceline but we
do try to work together, although usually only partially successfully.

The dynamics of riding in a group intrigues me and I've asked some
previous questions arising from my experiences. The question that
occurred to me during this weekend's charity ride is this: how do you
handle hills when the riders in the group have different abilities to
maintain some speed and momentum while climbing? That is, I take my
turn pulling then pull off to rest--but then comes a hill and the line
breaks down. I'm a bit stronger up hills than most of the people with
whom I ride so I typically have to pull out to the left and pass just
to get up the hill without killing myself at the slower pace. Then I
usually soft-pedal until we regroup when I either stay out front or
let the leaders take over again.

We often have a similar situation on descents where some folks ride
their brakes and others are more comfortable getting up some speed. I
of course like the speed going down hill because it helps me get my
bulk up the next hill.

So how does a group stay or work together better when the members
cannot climb at roughly the same speed? Thanks for contributing to my
cycling education.
--Roy Zipris