Home / Education / Ride Leader Responsibilities

Ride Leader Responsibilities


If you would like to be or are a ride leader, here is a list of things that you need to know.

  1. Be careful to set a pace that will attain an AVERAGE speed as close as possible to the designated ride speed.
  2. If some riders insist on going at an accelerated pace (faster than the designated speed), let them go. Do not try to speed up ride to accommodate them. They are on their own.
  3. Make a count, before your ride starts, of the number of people you have in your group.
  4. Check frequently during the course of your ride that all riders that you started with are still with you and that they can maintain the pace you are setting.
  5. If necessary to check on the condition, status and / or location of stragglers, stop your ride at a convenient location and re-group.
  6. Do not under any circumstances, abandon anyone on your ride. You must bring back, or be able to account for, every rider on your ride,
  7. If one of your riders has a physical (e.g. Falls, Bee sting, etc.) or mechanical (e.g. Flat re,: tire, broken spoke, etc.) problem, you should do one of following
    1. Stop the ride and if the problem can be solved in a reasonable period of time (use your own judgment here), resume your ride when the rider who had the problem is able to continue.
    2. Try to get a volunteer who knows the way back to stay with the rider until he/she is ready to return to the start.
    3. If problem cannot be solved in the field and rider must be picked up, make whatever arrangements must be made to pick him up in a vehicle, either his/hers or someone else’s.
    4. Use your best judgment if problem is more serious. If you were the person involved, how would you want it handled?
  8. As ride leader, because of legal technicalities, you should not directly do any mechanical work on any one elses bike on your ride. You may of course advise someone else how to do something. This means you should not fix a flat, blow up a tire, adjust brakes etc.
  9. In summation you should:
    1. Set a pace in accordance with designated average speed.
    2. Check on your riders frequently.
    3. Bring them all back alive.
  10. Accept the club’s thanks for a job well done
Print Friendly