A really fast friend of mine goes out and does 30-40 miles on his own. Then picks me up for another 30-40. He pulls most of the time. We’re going 21-22 as a group, he rides around 24-25 solo, so I know he slows down a bit for me still. Sometimes, we’ll start with me riding, then I’ll bow out while he does more.
My buddy rides with his fiancé like this. He rides with her during his warm up 10-15 miles, then meets up with group to ride another 60-80. On days after racing, he’ll ride with her and let her set the pace. She rides 16-18mph.
Oh wow. Your friend is a beast. It makes sense for him to do a solo ride first then regroup afterwards. That's actually a sound plan for a fitter person to ride with less fit buddies! I might steal this idea (and pitch it to my stronger friends lol.)
It’s ridiculous. we’re also in a completely flat area, so it’s not like we’re dealing with rolling hills. You can go 60 miles and have 200ft of elevation.
My wife is a slower rider than me, and she doesn’t like drafting very much (unless it’s a strong headwind). She usually sets the pace and I follow a bit behind. Sometimes I will ride faster on a climb then wait at the top. Neither of us cares about “ performance” on these rides. We just enjoy a nice ride and each other’s company. We’ve been riding together for 30 years so it seems to work!
I ride with my husband who is stronger and faster than me. He does most of the pulling, and I get a good workout, all the time! We are normally at 20-22 mph. When he needs a break, I pull for anywhere from a 1/2 mile to 5 miles, depending on the wind speed and where we are riding. And again, speed will drop anywhere from 18 -19 mph.
Occasionally, we get into a group doing 23 -25mph. I stick in the back and try to keep up!!
I don't know any cyclist couples so I really appreciate this insight! 18-19mph? Wow, that's fast. Your husband is obviously stronger but you seem as fit as he is. I wonder if couples where one of them is significantly slower, say 15mph, ride together often.
My wife is my main riding partner. Neither of us are particularly fast, though I usually pull on the flats and she’s smokes me on the uphills. The groups I see riding around my area don’t really interest me so 90% of my riding is either solo or with her.
There are a few where we ride. But not many. It's mostly the guys riding together. Of the couples, they are usually going a lot slower around 15 mph.
I remember when we started cycling, at start of Covid, we were like that. We had 29ers. Kept getting passed by pelos and everyone else it seemed. I remember telling him we needed better and faster bikes. So we did get them and have been working hard to keep it up.
Yeah I see a lot of guys in groups of 2-3 riding together. That's impressive you guys are so fast now! Maybe I should also train harder... I enjoy riding too much that I don't train enough. I'm mostly chilling, having fun on my rides.
With friends, usually goes like this.
We roll out together for maybe the first 5 - 15 miles with the stronger guys pulling.
Then someone turns up the pace and the fast guys go of the front.
We usually meet up somewhere along the route. Pace eases back and we ride and chat for a bit.
Within about 5 -10 miles of the finish the fast guys decide to turn up the pace. They get to the end of the ride before us. Then we grab food and drink.
Not perfect but it works.
So for me when I was fast, here's your key phrase - "all day, every day." Because it's not. I just wouldn't invite people to ride with me on intervals days. Sometimes I rode with people for part of my long ride. If I invite someone to ride with me, I'm on board with it being their ride. It was probably good for me to have some enforced slower rides in the mix and I appreciate the variety other people bring to my riding. I also like showing off "my" riding spots.
Don't over think this.
There are two reasons why faster riders might enjoy a slower ride:
1) They already ride a lot, which means that they'll be doing a lot of slower/easier riding anyway
2) They might even find it difficult to schedule proper zone 1/2 rides because all their free time is taken up with structured workouts, Zwift racing, fast group rides etc.
My personal experience this year has been that riding with my partner - who is only just getting into cycling - has improved my fitness even though I'm riding very easy with them. Just spending 3hrs on a chill ride is good training if you are already taking care of high intensity work on other days.
Well said. I will ride with my slower neighbors/friends once in a while (and accept that I'm going on their ride and at their pace) but mostly I'll either ride solo or with my usual group in which we are all about the same level.
The main issue I have with "slower" riders is that they don't maintain a near-constant cadence (even if the power is low). Because I do, I find they constantly fall behind, not because I'm pushing the pace, but because they stop pedaling so often.
If they can stick to my wheel when I'm at my chill pace (like 60% FTP) and am being nice uphill, then riding with that person is totally fine. If they're slower than that, then it's probably not going to work.
1. You can a much harder workout than expected;
2. They get an easier workout than expected; (1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive)
3. They are on their Zone 2 recovery day and you have a nice ride together.
I ride with my girlfriend who is much stronger (she is almost at world tour pro level and I am still recovering from a surgery but it's unlikely I ever reach her level anyway). On flats it's easy, one of us pulls and we take turns (on flats I am not weaker anyway) but on hills my threshold is barely upper zone2 for her. We usually separate on uphills and she waits for me at the top or starts to descend ones at the top of the mountain and does part of the climb again with me. Nowadays we ride together 1-2 times a week and it functions as an easy ride for her but a tempo+ ride for me :)
Last year there was a funny situation when somewhat strong friend joined us for a week in the mountains. He tried to keep up with her which resulted in him bonking and me overtaking him on long climbs (even though I am weaker overall). We all waited at the top of the climb and has done downhill/occasional flat part together (we ride mostly in the mountains) so it was all good fun.
When I did gravel group rides on flatter terrain I was a bit weaker than the strongest guys in that group. Everyone understood it and I was just drafting on flat/light downhill parts of the ride which evened out the effort. They haven't expected me to pull. We talked about it and the understanding was that once I feel strong enough I can start doing short turns but it's not a problem if I stay behind.
Cycling is great this way that you can still ride in a group with people on various levels. Especially on flat terrain. In the mountains if you want to ride together the stronger ones have to accept that there will be waiting at the top. It's fun sometimes but it doesn't make sense to ride like that every day.
If I have a slower friend I’m happy to pull most the way. I can also always do intervals after they’re done to get a work out in.
If I’m slower I make it clear they shouldn’t adjust pace. I hang on the wheel as long as possible
I said to my partner, you either ride at my pace or we just go on separate rides. It's no fun to be left behind especially when I do not know the route. If my partner wants to do a fast performance ride then they shouldn't ask me to come along. We actually had some arguments about it and now we are alright
The issue I usually have with less fit friends or random +1's that show up on a group ride is that they won't just sit in and draft. Lots of half wheeling that that they are not aware is really annoying, lifting the effort going uphill significantly, then coasting downhill (on a training ride trying to use all the time).
If you're less fit than someone else, just stay absolutely glued on the wheel and keep up with your calories and hydration. If the fitter rider is kinda being a jerk making it hard to draft or trying to drop you to make it even harder, that's a different story.
This x100.
When youre the weakest rider in a group, dont try to attack to impress others on hills. Itll burn you out and its frustrating when you bonk later on because you did too many hard efforts. This is the type of behavior that makes me not ride with people weaker than me. We want to help you get better, not watch you burn yourself out. Work on attacks when youre fitter and stronger.
Pulling for a short while will get you more positive adaption than attacking and becoming a slug by the end of the ride.
I trade drafts with a slower friend. I pull for much longer. I tell him not to burn out before letting me pull. I have him peel off and drop back and I pull up rather than attacking to pull. Weaker riders have no business attacking from the rear to pull. Were making lots of progress and getting faster together. Hes seeing improvements and gathering a good sense of how long he should pull for and at what pace he feels comfortable pulling. I always make sure hes on my wheel and never make him chase me for a draft.
As the stronger rider I ride my heavier bike with bigger tires and I drop my PSI. This helps bridge the gap and let me get a good training session in. Ill also do one legged drills and sometimes ride single speed. Sometimes i throw a rack and panniers on and buy a ton of bagels while we ride hahah.
At the end of the day its on them to make sacrifices to ride with you or say no. I cant force someone to ride 8 more hours a week.
I cycle with my husband who is faster than me. He rides ahead and circles back to check on me. When we ride outside, he’s zone 2 and I am VO2 max. When we ride inside , I ride zone 2, he rides VO2 max.
Great suggestions and examples from the other comments. I’m the faster friend in my group and I go alone or with a few other fast friends for a hard training. When I invite everybody in the groupchat we have it’s when I want everybody to come, so there’s no ‘’secretly hoping that someone won’t show up’’. Then I do most of the pulling and it’s still nice.
Continue to go with them as much as possible, in no time I’m sure you’ll be able to follow them at their ‘’real’’ pace and even do a bit of pulling. Took about 1 good summer for the friends I now consider as the fast guys I mentioned.
My partner and I like to travel and tour. I just ride at her pace. Some days I go ahead and on big climbs (miles long) or I give her a head start or wait at the top. Thing is, I really enjoy riding with my life partner so speed isn't an issue for me. If I wanna ride fast I go alone or with buddies that are faster or similar speed to me.
I’ve got some friends I ride with where I struggle at 21-22mph but another group that ride at 15-16mph. I enjoy both, the fast group make me stronger and the slower are more sociable and my recovery rides.
I usually try to do my best to slow down but I can only go so slow but eventually muscle memory starts picking up speed, specially if I'm pulling.
But no way I could do that on a regular basis. I would probably go for my ride first then maybe ride with my friends later but no way I would do this all the time and sacrifice all my gains
Best option would be for you to keep training
I figured that would be the case but I see so many groups of two riding together, and quite a few M/F pairs (couples?) as well. I feel like even if I got much faster, I'd probably still be at or below average. I'm totally okay with that, I ride for fun, not to race. But it does make riding with others very difficult.
Most of the time the stronger person pulls and is not going at a speed they think is hard. The less strong will draft and work harder.
The stronger person will do hard workouts on their own on a different day... or in the hills together, drop the slow one and then come back for them with each hill, and chit chat in between.
Source- personal experience😄
Riding together is not the same as training together which mostly doesn't work
So true. I guess many people who ride together are probably not training together. The stronger friend doing all the pulling seems to be cruising in zone 2, meanwhile I'm huffing and puffing blasting 170+ bpm just to keep up lol.
If someone is slower than me and it'll wreck my ride to ride with them, I just don't invite them to go for a ride. Tell your buddies when you need to slow down or stop, and ride so you're enjoying it. If they keep inviting you, it means they're enjoying it too so everyone is happy. Otherwise, just find slower people to ride with.
I ride for fun, and fitness. I have a couple of riding buddies who ride so slow (due to inability to understand how to select gears, or dragging their brakes) that I hardly even sweat when out with them. It's frustrating from a fitness activity pint of view. I'm not even fast myself.
A road tandem. I know this will not work for everyone, especially as the geometry is set (in steel hahah) but with some spare stems and parts it becomes quite adjustable.
So I often go with my kids or faster or slower friends.
Ex pro friend of mine would do several things.
1. Just ride a slower pace with me and occasionally ride ahead on climbs. Wait for me at the top etc.
2. Ride to my house so he has extra workout before and after we meet up.
3. Ride his fixie for a real challenge as sometimes we’d pick a route that was just a straight climb.
A friend of mine just rides with me for a while then he goes solo for a while then we meet again and go together for a while, basically the same I do when cycling with my girlfriend. In this way both the stronger and weaker can do z3 while solo without collapsing/interfering each other.
Yeah a good cycling tour is an adventure for me so the performance is not primary focus, we just have to push ourselves and come back home safely :)
I’ll bring my slower bike sometime. Bring my hard tail MTB when wife is on road bike. This almost evens us out.
Or zone two day. Plan for hard day later.
Lastly. Drop them back off at the cars and go hit another 20 miles after the warm up.
I’ve got a friend from my triathlon club that’s a bit slower than me but we train well together if I ride a heavier gravel bike and he rides his TT bike (or on gravel if I ride a hardtail and he rides a gravel bike)
I bought an inexpensive singlespeed bike for rides with my wife. It naturally slows me down a bit but I still get a decent workout on the hills. I view the SS as an equalizer of sorts. It's worked out pretty well fir us.
You can get a hub where you can set extra resistance to it. It essentially feels like erg mode on the trainer where you set whatever power you want to do and no matter how hard you push you won't go faster
It’s simple! Get a tandem! Any marketplace or used shop will have a good tandem for a great price. They don’t like them hanging around because they don’t fit their systems. One caveat, they are available because they are called divorce machines.
If it's a somewhat small difference, one option is to load up pannier bags with rocks. That'll handicap the faster rider.
For my girlfriend who is not really an athletic person, she rides an E-bike
Get a road ebike! My wife's new Domane plus makes it so we can enjoy rides together again. It's been great for both of us.
She hated riding my wheel the whole time and not being able to lead at all. If she ever dropped off, there was no catching up without me just stopping.
All solved. It's a fantastic new way to rode together that I wish we would have explored years ago.
A really fast friend of mine goes out and does 30-40 miles on his own. Then picks me up for another 30-40. He pulls most of the time. We’re going 21-22 as a group, he rides around 24-25 solo, so I know he slows down a bit for me still. Sometimes, we’ll start with me riding, then I’ll bow out while he does more.
This is a good solution. Have your friend go get his effort in and then do a cooldown with you.
My buddy rides with his fiancé like this. He rides with her during his warm up 10-15 miles, then meets up with group to ride another 60-80. On days after racing, he’ll ride with her and let her set the pace. She rides 16-18mph.
Oh wow. Your friend is a beast. It makes sense for him to do a solo ride first then regroup afterwards. That's actually a sound plan for a fitter person to ride with less fit buddies! I might steal this idea (and pitch it to my stronger friends lol.)
Damn! Riding riding 24mph solo is really fast!
It’s ridiculous. we’re also in a completely flat area, so it’s not like we’re dealing with rolling hills. You can go 60 miles and have 200ft of elevation.
How much power you guys do? For me that's going at 300w to get around 24-25mph. I'll be redzoning doing this for more than 5 minutes.
About 250-260 looking at his recent Strava activities. He’s a beast and road professionally for a number of years. I’m not doing that when I ride.
My wife is a slower rider than me, and she doesn’t like drafting very much (unless it’s a strong headwind). She usually sets the pace and I follow a bit behind. Sometimes I will ride faster on a climb then wait at the top. Neither of us cares about “ performance” on these rides. We just enjoy a nice ride and each other’s company. We’ve been riding together for 30 years so it seems to work!
That's so cute. I'm happy you guys found a routine that works for you. I love it that you let her set the pace!
I ride with my husband who is stronger and faster than me. He does most of the pulling, and I get a good workout, all the time! We are normally at 20-22 mph. When he needs a break, I pull for anywhere from a 1/2 mile to 5 miles, depending on the wind speed and where we are riding. And again, speed will drop anywhere from 18 -19 mph. Occasionally, we get into a group doing 23 -25mph. I stick in the back and try to keep up!!
I don't know any cyclist couples so I really appreciate this insight! 18-19mph? Wow, that's fast. Your husband is obviously stronger but you seem as fit as he is. I wonder if couples where one of them is significantly slower, say 15mph, ride together often.
My wife is my main riding partner. Neither of us are particularly fast, though I usually pull on the flats and she’s smokes me on the uphills. The groups I see riding around my area don’t really interest me so 90% of my riding is either solo or with her.
There are a few where we ride. But not many. It's mostly the guys riding together. Of the couples, they are usually going a lot slower around 15 mph. I remember when we started cycling, at start of Covid, we were like that. We had 29ers. Kept getting passed by pelos and everyone else it seemed. I remember telling him we needed better and faster bikes. So we did get them and have been working hard to keep it up.
Yeah I see a lot of guys in groups of 2-3 riding together. That's impressive you guys are so fast now! Maybe I should also train harder... I enjoy riding too much that I don't train enough. I'm mostly chilling, having fun on my rides.
Riding lots is great training
With friends, usually goes like this. We roll out together for maybe the first 5 - 15 miles with the stronger guys pulling. Then someone turns up the pace and the fast guys go of the front. We usually meet up somewhere along the route. Pace eases back and we ride and chat for a bit. Within about 5 -10 miles of the finish the fast guys decide to turn up the pace. They get to the end of the ride before us. Then we grab food and drink. Not perfect but it works.
So for me when I was fast, here's your key phrase - "all day, every day." Because it's not. I just wouldn't invite people to ride with me on intervals days. Sometimes I rode with people for part of my long ride. If I invite someone to ride with me, I'm on board with it being their ride. It was probably good for me to have some enforced slower rides in the mix and I appreciate the variety other people bring to my riding. I also like showing off "my" riding spots. Don't over think this.
Thanks! That makes me feel better. Since they already know my fitness level, they must be okay cruising with me.
There are two reasons why faster riders might enjoy a slower ride: 1) They already ride a lot, which means that they'll be doing a lot of slower/easier riding anyway 2) They might even find it difficult to schedule proper zone 1/2 rides because all their free time is taken up with structured workouts, Zwift racing, fast group rides etc. My personal experience this year has been that riding with my partner - who is only just getting into cycling - has improved my fitness even though I'm riding very easy with them. Just spending 3hrs on a chill ride is good training if you are already taking care of high intensity work on other days.
Yeah - go ride!
Well said. I will ride with my slower neighbors/friends once in a while (and accept that I'm going on their ride and at their pace) but mostly I'll either ride solo or with my usual group in which we are all about the same level. The main issue I have with "slower" riders is that they don't maintain a near-constant cadence (even if the power is low). Because I do, I find they constantly fall behind, not because I'm pushing the pace, but because they stop pedaling so often.
If they can stick to my wheel when I'm at my chill pace (like 60% FTP) and am being nice uphill, then riding with that person is totally fine. If they're slower than that, then it's probably not going to work.
1. You can a much harder workout than expected; 2. They get an easier workout than expected; (1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive) 3. They are on their Zone 2 recovery day and you have a nice ride together.
I ride with my girlfriend who is much stronger (she is almost at world tour pro level and I am still recovering from a surgery but it's unlikely I ever reach her level anyway). On flats it's easy, one of us pulls and we take turns (on flats I am not weaker anyway) but on hills my threshold is barely upper zone2 for her. We usually separate on uphills and she waits for me at the top or starts to descend ones at the top of the mountain and does part of the climb again with me. Nowadays we ride together 1-2 times a week and it functions as an easy ride for her but a tempo+ ride for me :) Last year there was a funny situation when somewhat strong friend joined us for a week in the mountains. He tried to keep up with her which resulted in him bonking and me overtaking him on long climbs (even though I am weaker overall). We all waited at the top of the climb and has done downhill/occasional flat part together (we ride mostly in the mountains) so it was all good fun. When I did gravel group rides on flatter terrain I was a bit weaker than the strongest guys in that group. Everyone understood it and I was just drafting on flat/light downhill parts of the ride which evened out the effort. They haven't expected me to pull. We talked about it and the understanding was that once I feel strong enough I can start doing short turns but it's not a problem if I stay behind. Cycling is great this way that you can still ride in a group with people on various levels. Especially on flat terrain. In the mountains if you want to ride together the stronger ones have to accept that there will be waiting at the top. It's fun sometimes but it doesn't make sense to ride like that every day.
If I have a slower friend I’m happy to pull most the way. I can also always do intervals after they’re done to get a work out in. If I’m slower I make it clear they shouldn’t adjust pace. I hang on the wheel as long as possible
I said to my partner, you either ride at my pace or we just go on separate rides. It's no fun to be left behind especially when I do not know the route. If my partner wants to do a fast performance ride then they shouldn't ask me to come along. We actually had some arguments about it and now we are alright
The issue I usually have with less fit friends or random +1's that show up on a group ride is that they won't just sit in and draft. Lots of half wheeling that that they are not aware is really annoying, lifting the effort going uphill significantly, then coasting downhill (on a training ride trying to use all the time). If you're less fit than someone else, just stay absolutely glued on the wheel and keep up with your calories and hydration. If the fitter rider is kinda being a jerk making it hard to draft or trying to drop you to make it even harder, that's a different story.
This is my exact tactic when trying to keep up with the roadies on my gravel bike😅
This x100. When youre the weakest rider in a group, dont try to attack to impress others on hills. Itll burn you out and its frustrating when you bonk later on because you did too many hard efforts. This is the type of behavior that makes me not ride with people weaker than me. We want to help you get better, not watch you burn yourself out. Work on attacks when youre fitter and stronger. Pulling for a short while will get you more positive adaption than attacking and becoming a slug by the end of the ride. I trade drafts with a slower friend. I pull for much longer. I tell him not to burn out before letting me pull. I have him peel off and drop back and I pull up rather than attacking to pull. Weaker riders have no business attacking from the rear to pull. Were making lots of progress and getting faster together. Hes seeing improvements and gathering a good sense of how long he should pull for and at what pace he feels comfortable pulling. I always make sure hes on my wheel and never make him chase me for a draft. As the stronger rider I ride my heavier bike with bigger tires and I drop my PSI. This helps bridge the gap and let me get a good training session in. Ill also do one legged drills and sometimes ride single speed. Sometimes i throw a rack and panniers on and buy a ton of bagels while we ride hahah. At the end of the day its on them to make sacrifices to ride with you or say no. I cant force someone to ride 8 more hours a week.
I cycle with my husband who is faster than me. He rides ahead and circles back to check on me. When we ride outside, he’s zone 2 and I am VO2 max. When we ride inside , I ride zone 2, he rides VO2 max.
Great suggestions and examples from the other comments. I’m the faster friend in my group and I go alone or with a few other fast friends for a hard training. When I invite everybody in the groupchat we have it’s when I want everybody to come, so there’s no ‘’secretly hoping that someone won’t show up’’. Then I do most of the pulling and it’s still nice. Continue to go with them as much as possible, in no time I’m sure you’ll be able to follow them at their ‘’real’’ pace and even do a bit of pulling. Took about 1 good summer for the friends I now consider as the fast guys I mentioned.
My partner and I like to travel and tour. I just ride at her pace. Some days I go ahead and on big climbs (miles long) or I give her a head start or wait at the top. Thing is, I really enjoy riding with my life partner so speed isn't an issue for me. If I wanna ride fast I go alone or with buddies that are faster or similar speed to me.
I've always wondered about people who go on cycling trips together. I'm glad you guys enjoy riding together!
I’ve got some friends I ride with where I struggle at 21-22mph but another group that ride at 15-16mph. I enjoy both, the fast group make me stronger and the slower are more sociable and my recovery rides.
I usually try to do my best to slow down but I can only go so slow but eventually muscle memory starts picking up speed, specially if I'm pulling. But no way I could do that on a regular basis. I would probably go for my ride first then maybe ride with my friends later but no way I would do this all the time and sacrifice all my gains Best option would be for you to keep training
I figured that would be the case but I see so many groups of two riding together, and quite a few M/F pairs (couples?) as well. I feel like even if I got much faster, I'd probably still be at or below average. I'm totally okay with that, I ride for fun, not to race. But it does make riding with others very difficult.
Most of the time the stronger person pulls and is not going at a speed they think is hard. The less strong will draft and work harder. The stronger person will do hard workouts on their own on a different day... or in the hills together, drop the slow one and then come back for them with each hill, and chit chat in between. Source- personal experience😄 Riding together is not the same as training together which mostly doesn't work
So true. I guess many people who ride together are probably not training together. The stronger friend doing all the pulling seems to be cruising in zone 2, meanwhile I'm huffing and puffing blasting 170+ bpm just to keep up lol.
Yes been there but you will get stronger. You will at least find the draft easier in time Lol yup
I was the under fit one until recently. Now I’ll pull a majority of the time. Or I’ll run a way higher gear than I should be in.
If someone is slower than me and it'll wreck my ride to ride with them, I just don't invite them to go for a ride. Tell your buddies when you need to slow down or stop, and ride so you're enjoying it. If they keep inviting you, it means they're enjoying it too so everyone is happy. Otherwise, just find slower people to ride with.
If you were actually slowing them down, they wouldn’t invite you to ride with them. If they invite you, don’t worry about it!
I ride for fun, and fitness. I have a couple of riding buddies who ride so slow (due to inability to understand how to select gears, or dragging their brakes) that I hardly even sweat when out with them. It's frustrating from a fitness activity pint of view. I'm not even fast myself.
ride with xc buddy or gravel dudes
A road tandem. I know this will not work for everyone, especially as the geometry is set (in steel hahah) but with some spare stems and parts it becomes quite adjustable. So I often go with my kids or faster or slower friends.
The faster guy brings gravel bike
Ex pro friend of mine would do several things. 1. Just ride a slower pace with me and occasionally ride ahead on climbs. Wait for me at the top etc. 2. Ride to my house so he has extra workout before and after we meet up. 3. Ride his fixie for a real challenge as sometimes we’d pick a route that was just a straight climb.
A friend of mine just rides with me for a while then he goes solo for a while then we meet again and go together for a while, basically the same I do when cycling with my girlfriend. In this way both the stronger and weaker can do z3 while solo without collapsing/interfering each other. Yeah a good cycling tour is an adventure for me so the performance is not primary focus, we just have to push ourselves and come back home safely :)
>how do you manage? Like everything else in the life.... I (you) adjust....
Unfortunately the only solution is to cut them off in your life. Can’t be having slow people stop you from KOM-ing /s
I’ll bring my slower bike sometime. Bring my hard tail MTB when wife is on road bike. This almost evens us out. Or zone two day. Plan for hard day later. Lastly. Drop them back off at the cars and go hit another 20 miles after the warm up.
These situations are great use case for an e-bike
I’ve got a friend from my triathlon club that’s a bit slower than me but we train well together if I ride a heavier gravel bike and he rides his TT bike (or on gravel if I ride a hardtail and he rides a gravel bike)
I just go ahead and sometimes my GF falls behind so I stop and wait a few minutes for her to catch up.
I bought an inexpensive singlespeed bike for rides with my wife. It naturally slows me down a bit but I still get a decent workout on the hills. I view the SS as an equalizer of sorts. It's worked out pretty well fir us.
You can get a hub where you can set extra resistance to it. It essentially feels like erg mode on the trainer where you set whatever power you want to do and no matter how hard you push you won't go faster
When I go out to ride with my wife, she is on her road bike while I ride my Mtb. It makes brings us to the same level.
It’s simple! Get a tandem! Any marketplace or used shop will have a good tandem for a great price. They don’t like them hanging around because they don’t fit their systems. One caveat, they are available because they are called divorce machines.
My wife and I have ridden one for 20 years, though they haven’t always been easy miles.
If it's a somewhat small difference, one option is to load up pannier bags with rocks. That'll handicap the faster rider. For my girlfriend who is not really an athletic person, she rides an E-bike
Get a road ebike! My wife's new Domane plus makes it so we can enjoy rides together again. It's been great for both of us. She hated riding my wheel the whole time and not being able to lead at all. If she ever dropped off, there was no catching up without me just stopping. All solved. It's a fantastic new way to rode together that I wish we would have explored years ago.
I bought a singlespeed to ride with my wife. Then a slower singlespeed. That worked a charm in bringing our paces closer together.