Ride Leader (RL) Guidelines

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Providing club members with a variety of interesting and enjoyable rides of different distances, elevation gains and pace is our primary club mission. It is however highly dependent on club members leading rides on routes they enjoy. Without your help we won’t have the variety or frequency of rides we would all like. Leading a club ride is the simplest and most important contribution you can make to our club.


Planning the Ride

The Ride With GPS website (ridewithgps.com) will enable you to design a route for your club ride. Ride leaders should verify that all roads are accurately depicted and appropriate. Route sheets that provide route directions in text should be available for each ride. A quick RWGPS tutorial can be found here to get you started designing a route. Many RWGPS routes are available in our Ride Archive and in past rides found on our Ride History page.

Pre-ride Prep Work

  1. Use the Ride Entry Form found on our website under the "Ride/Event" tab to start the registration process. The form will guide you through the steps of inputting the RWGPS route number and prompt for additional ride details. You will be initially prompted to login using your membership e-mail and password.
  2. RL's should bring the following to each ride:
    1. Clipboard
    2. Pen
    3. Ride roster
    4. Route slips
    5. A ride waiver form ride waiver.pdf
    6. A minor's waiver form minors_waiver.pdf
  3. The ride entry form should be completed at a minimum two days before your ride. However, some rides should be added to the calendar well in advance of two days. This would include the longer Sunday rides and enduro rides. The ride announcement e-mail going out to the group should however be sent out a few days before the ride.
  4. Subsequent e-mails to update the group of your ride can be sent using the e-mail address:   sfcc_group@googlegroups.com.  Note that YOUR e-mail address must be registered in the sfcc_group directory. 
  5. If there is a possibility of a last minute ride cancellation due to rain, smoke, fog, etc., send out a cancellation e-mail to the group. This should be sent out no less than 1.5 to 2 hours before the ride start. Not everyone who attends our rides (eg, guests) are not on our group e-mail distribution so you should also indicate a cancellation in the calendar ride entry using the ride entry form.

Day of the Ride

    Pre-Ride

  1. RL’s arrive 15-20 minutes before the ride is scheduled to start.
  2. Make sure all riders sign the Ride Roster
  3. Non-member s must also sign the Liability Waiver Form in addition to the Ride Roster.
  4. RL should have available an appropriate # (5-6) of printed route sheets.
  5. Introduce yourself & inquire about new members or guests.
  6. Minors ( < 18)  must complete the Minors Waiver Form. Note this requires the signature of the minor's parent or guardian.
  7. Briefly describe the route, tricky turns, known hazards, regroup locations, any existing bathroom & water locations.
  8. Make sure all riders know how to contact the ride leader in case of an issue.  Their phone # can be found at the bottom of the route sheet, their email from the ride leader, or the club's Member Directory found here.
  9. Remind riders to sign out on the Ride Roster at end of ride.
  10. Instruct riders to inform the RL if they decide to depart from the route.
  11. Remind riders it is their responsibility to follow the rules of the road and ride safely as SFCC’s image is on display during every ride.

    Ride

  1. Safe, legal, fun, and enjoyable rides are the objectives of every SFCC club ride.
  2. Let the riders know whether the ride will be swept (matches the ride description on the SFCC calendar).
  3. Ride Leaders do not have to sweep riders who inform you they do not want to be swept.

    Post-Ride

  1. Make sure all the riders have returned or are accounted for, and have signed out on the Ride Roster.
  2. The RL needs to verify that all riders are accounted for and after a reasonable amount of time, based on the distance and difficulty of the route, should call/text the number listed by the rider on the Ride Roster to determine their status.
  3. Ride Rosters & any signed waivers do not have to be saved if all riders are accounted for.

Thank you for being a leader! Our members appreciate your leadership. The Club wouldn’t be much fun without Ride Leaders and their rides. Mentor a newer member with Ride Leader potential, they are the lifeblood of our Club.

 

Revised 03/25/2024


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