What pace for a group bike ride?

“What pace are we riding at?” It's the question everyone asks before a group ride, and the one whose answer disappoints the most people when it's badly judged. Too fast, and the least trained spend the morning hanging on. Too slow, and the strongest get bored. Here's how to understand average speed, adjust it to the route and the group, and use it to predict when you'll be back.

What “average speed” means

Average speed is the distance covered divided by the time spent riding. The key word is riding: in everyday use, and on most bike computers, the average excludes stops. The coffee halfway round, the puncture, waiting at the lights or regrouping at the top of a climb don't count.

When you announce a pace, make this clear if there's any doubt. “25 km/h moving average” and “25 km/h including stops” describe completely different rides: the second means riding considerably faster to make up for the breaks.

Benchmarks on the road, on gravel and on a mountain bike

On the road, three benchmarks are enough to pitch a ride:

• Around 20 km/h: an easy pace. You can chat as you ride, occasional cyclists keep up without difficulty, and it's the ideal pace for a comeback ride or a hilly route.
• Around 25 km/h: a moderate pace. It suits cyclists who ride every week and starts to call for some shelter in the wheels.
• Around 30 km/h: a fast pace. It assumes fairly flat terrain, a group of similar ability and organised through-and-off turns.

On gravel, tracks, stones and technical sections bring the average down, even with good legs. On a mountain bike, the gap is even wider: on trails, an average well below that of the road is perfectly normal. In both cases, announce a cautious pace, even if it means arriving early.

Climbing and wind change everything

A pace only makes sense in relation to the route. The same rider who holds 25 km/h on a flat loop will drop well below that on a route with several climbs: what they gain on the descents never makes up for the time lost going up. The greater the elevation gain relative to the distance, the lower the average.

Wind works the same way. A steady headwind over a long stretch slashes your speed and wears the group down, while the tailwind on the way home never wins back all the time lost. If the ride looks windy, it's better to lower the pace. The guide to choosing the day of a bike ride based on the weather explains how to read wind, gusts and the risk of showers.

Choosing the pace for a mixed-ability group

The rule is simple: start from the slowest rider. A successful group ride is one where the group sets off together and comes home together. Announce the pace that the least trained person can hold over the whole distance, not the one they manage over their best ten kilometres.

If the differences in level are too great, split into ability groups instead: an easy group and a faster group, with the same starting point and possibly a shared meeting point for coffee. Everyone rides at their own pace, and nobody spends the ride waiting or suffering.

Estimating the return time

The basic calculation fits on one line: riding time ≈ distance ÷ average speed. Then you add the breaks.

Take an 80 km loop at an average of 25 km/h. 80 divided by 25 gives 3.2 hours, or 3 h 12 min of riding. Add a 20-minute coffee stop and a few regroups, say 30 minutes in total: for an 8:30 am start, expect to be back around 12:15 pm. Enough to reassure those expected home for lunch.

On Cyclodate, where you can create a group bike ride from your GPX, the organiser chooses an Easy (20 km/h), Steady (25 km/h) or Brisk (30 km/h) pace, or a custom value from 12 to 45 km/h. The duration shown is calculated in exactly this way, distance divided by average speed, with no adjustment for climbing or breaks. So announce an average that already accounts for the terrain of your route: on a hilly loop, a “Steady” pace at 25 km/h will give an overly optimistic duration.

The pace also feeds into the weather. Cyclodate uses it to estimate when the group will reach each section of the route, and therefore the weather it will meet there. A slower pace shifts the whole route later in the day: a shower forecast for late morning may then catch the group, and the ranking of the suggested dates may change. Hence the value of announcing a realistic pace rather than an optimistic one.

Holding the pace once you're on the bike

Taking turns at the front

In a group, riding sheltered in the wheel of the rider ahead takes considerably less effort. The idea of taking turns: each rider spends a few minutes at the front, then pulls aside and drifts back to the rear of the group. The strongest can take longer turns, the least trained shorter ones, or stay sheltered. Whoever takes the front holds the announced pace instead of speeding up.

Regrouping

Plan regrouping points: at the top of climbs, at junctions, before a busier stretch of road. These short stops stop the group from stringing out over several hundred metres, and nobody ends up alone or lost.

On the climbs, the weakest rider sets the tempo

Uphill, gaps open up very quickly. Two options: either the group climbs at the pace of the slowest, or everyone climbs at their own pace and the whole group waits at the top. Either way, the weakest rider sets the tempo of the ride. That's what lets everyone finish with a smile and come back the following week.

In short

• Make clear whether the announced pace includes breaks or not.
• Start from the 20, 25 and 30 km/h benchmarks on the road, and lower them on gravel, on a mountain bike, on a hilly route or in strong wind.
• Match the pace to the slowest rider, or split into ability groups.
• Work out the riding time, add the breaks, and announce a return time.

Pace is only one part of the organisation. For the route, choosing the dates and the ride-day checklist, follow the guide to organising a group bike ride.