Well I did the club ride today. It was a disaster.
I signed up expecting 24-27kph. Turns out they wanted to do 26-28kph. I was expecting 65-80km. The ride was going to be 90km. And the no drop policy was a joke. I fell off the back after 10km as I couldn't do the 28+kph they were doing(looking through it on strava, just before I fell off, they were doing 29-30), It took them over a 1km to notice, and then after an argument with the ride leader, she basically told me to go home.
Now I'm back at the laptop, I've checked the website. Both the ride leader and myself were right. I was expecting 24-27kph, which is what it says in one place on the website, she was expecting 26-28kph, which it says in another place on the same website. I've emailed the shop that this ride is associated with, as well as the contact address for the ride, and asked them to fix their website, so noone else has to suffer this experience.
It's completely put me off ever wanting to join another group ride, ah well. I'll have some lunch, then go for a relaxed solo ride.
This ride wasn't fun, wasn't relaxed, and wasn't social.
J