Guidance for Ride Marshals

An enhanced, interactive version of this guide is available in the London Dynamo Knowledgebase.
Step-by-step marshal guides with checklists for each ride.

This guide is for marshals on our regular Saturday and Sunday rides.

Guide for Ride Marshals

Saturday Park Ride Marshalling

The Safety Briefing & Sending Off

The regular Saturday park ride marshal issues The Safety Briefing at the start, ensures the club ride takes place with appropriately sized groups and that those groups depart at appropriate intervals.

Richmond Park is a Royal Park, shared with the public and ridden by London Dynamo every Saturday. The rules below are the standards the club holds itself to. We abide by them without exception, and your role as marshal is to make sure every group does the same.

Marshals may either read this out verbatim or deliver a stylised version in their own words so long as they cover all the salient points.

The Rules of Riding in Richmond Park ('The Safety Briefing')

A maximum of 8 riders per group (6 in group 1) and never more than 2 abreast.
Every group must have a leader and riders should follow their instructions.
Riders should warn about hazards ahead, either with hand signals or audible calls.
If you need to shout near other park users, preface the shouted instruction with, “Dynamo” to avoid giving the impression you are shouting at them.
Pause rotation and adjust pace on the approach to roundabouts and be ready to give way.
Do not overtake other cyclists close to roundabouts: they may be turning right.
Single out when negotiating cycle gateways and other narrow gaps.
Give way to pedestrians and horse riders if you see them waiting to cross and it is safe to stop. Take particular care near Robin Hood Roundabout. When passing horses, slow right down and resist the urge to shout “horses” so loudly that you startle the horses themselves.
You may overtake when safe to do so but do not simply follow the rider in front. You must read the road ahead and accept responsibility for your own safety.
As per traffic rules, riders must not cross double-white lines (notably on the Dark Hill climb or Broomfield Hill descent).
When overtaking cyclists, please give the overtaken riders at least a 1.5 metre wide berth and stay out until the whole group plus draft zone has got past before heading back to the left. This is to avoid cutting riders up or forcibly absorbing them into the group.
If the group splits after an overtake, the leader must re-form the group afterwards. Traffic should not be used to effect a breakaway (even on the last lap) or be the cause or riders being dropped.
Adjust pace for the conditions. The Park Ride is not about speed: it is about riding together safely, smoothly and efficiently. Adjust pace for deer, pedestrians, horse riders, other cyclists, cars and the weather.
Slow right down near car parks and cafés, the busiest spots in the park. Expect pedestrians stepping out without looking, children running and dogs off leads, and be ready to stop.
Deer can cross without warning. They are wild animals and unpredictable, so if you see one at the side of the road and it looks like it wants to cross, be ready to stop and pass the call back through the group.

Sending Riders Off

The marshal calls forward groups in descending order of pace, fastest group first. Riders self-select, so trust them to know their pace. The park-agreed maximum number of riders is 8.

Group 1 should have no more than 6 riders. Subsequent groups should have 6 to 8 riders. We recommend groups of 6 for all groups for ease of communication and overtaking traffic. If a group of 6 has formed and is ready, send it on its way rather than waiting for 2 more riders. If a group of 7 or 8 forms naturally, that is allowed. Never send more than 8: split the group first.

Groups should be sent off approximately 1 minute apart.

Other Considerations

All riders should have at least one piece of club kit, unless they are new and waiting for their order to arrive.
Helmets are mandatory: no helmet, no ride, no exceptions.
Tri-bars are forbidden. No one is to be allowed to set off with tri-bars fitted: ask for them to be removed or do not send the rider.
Check riders have at least one spare inner tube and a pump (or CO2), and that their bike is in good working order.
Check riders are dressed for the conditions: gloves and layers in winter, a gilet or jacket when it is wet.

The Newcomers Ride

The Newcomers Ride is the single entry point to joining London Dynamo (unless a rider has a British Cycling Cat 3 licence or higher in which case they need to contact the Membership secretary to get an independent briefing on joining).

The purposes of the Newcomers ride are threefold:

1. To assess prospective members on safety, attitude and competence with group riding and in particular with through and off.

2. To allow prospective members to assess London Dynamo. In your role as marshal, you are an ambassador for the club.

3. To inform prospective members about the club.

If you are marshalling the newcomers ride, please arrive in good time (about 15 minutes before the start of the ride)

The Membership team will circulate a list of prospective members ahead of the ride and if possible some idea of their pace to allow the marshals to divide up into groups.

The marshals should explain:

a) About the club: a bit about its history, about the ride offering, the regular event rides, the sportives and, importantly, the Helping Out Programme.

b) The purpose of the Newcomers Ride.

c) What ‘through and off is’ and how to do it well.

Many newcomers have never done through and off, so explain the rotation clearly before rolling out. A brief on-bike demonstration at the start helps more than any verbal description.

Note that the Newcomers Ride runs in tandem with the Park Ride and one of the marshals needs to do the main safety briefing. The other marshals should also get everyone to listen to the main safety briefing being delivered to the whole club.

The Newcomers ride is over 3 laps of the park in groups of no more than 6 to allow prospective members plenty of practice at through and off.

You may want to pause at Sheen Cross at the end of the first lap if you feel like you need to further explain or reiterate finer points of through and off or group riding in general.

At the end of the ride you need to say to individual riders whether they have passed the entry requirements and if so explain the next steps.

You are not under obligation to ‘pass’ any prospective rider. If you feel that a rider is unsafe or lacks the basic skills or ability to do the Saturday park ride, you should not be afraid to say so and you should politely suggest they try again another day to get some more practice. The next step is to refer the names of those that have passed to the Membership secretary who will contact those riders to see if they would like to progress their membership.

Throughout the three laps, assess each rider on: ability to hold pace, reading the road, signalling, a steady line through the rotation, and attitude to the rest of the group.

No one gets dropped: a prospective member is a guest of the club. If during the ride you find that a rider cannot hold the pace equal the very slowest of London Dynamo’s Park Ride groups, do not simply drop them. Instead, get the rest of the group to slow down while you politely suggest to them that they drop back and meet back at the café. There you should let them know they are currently off the pace of the slower end of the club and if they still want to join, and you have judged them to ride carefully you may still recommend them to the Membership Secretary.

At the end of the three laps, please offer prospective members a hot drink. You can get reimbursed by sending a screenshot of a receipt to the Treasurer of the club. Please stick around to talk more about the club and answer any questions.

Sunday Ride Marshalling

The Sunday rides are more informal but if you are a Marshal/Ride Leader for either the Windsor & Thames Valley Ride or the Explorer Ride you are asked to do the following:

At least by the preceding Wednesday – choose your route from the Route Book and announce which route you will be leading on the Members Forum and the Sunday Rides Whatsapp group.
Load the route onto your bike computer and test it the night before: check it loads, check it routes and check the turn prompts fire.
Make sure it is the current version. Routes are updated regularly, so delete the old file and re-download it from the Route Book.
Before you roll out, ask whether other riders also have the route loaded. It is a safety net if your device fails or you take a wrong turn.
On the day, as ride marshal you have to:
- Act as marshal for the whole group ride: ensure that groups are an appropriate size (ideally no more than 8 riders) and leave in an organised manner, fastest first, with no overlapping departures.
- Act leader of the non-drop group. You must make sure this group is truly a non-drop group which means that the ride must be manageable for the slowest member of this group. No one is to be left behind from this group or to be forced to ride at a pace beyond what they can manage for a sustained amount of time.
- On a hilly route, regroup at the top of every hill: make sure everyone is accounted for and that the last person up has recovered, not just arrived, before setting off again. Count the size of the group at the start so you can be sure everyone is there. Keep watching the back of the group: check your mirrors and over your shoulder, and drop back to ride alongside anyone who is struggling.
- If you feel there is a large pace discrepancy across the group, you can suggest when stopped that the group splits into two smaller groups. If a majority agrees to this ensure that the two smaller groups are of a similar size to each other. As ride marshal you should ride with the slowest of the two groups. Similarly if the group grows because you pick up stragglers from a group in front, be prepared to split the group if it grows too large.
- If a rider indicates that they wish to leave the group and ride alone you should first clarify that the group can ride at a slower pace to accommodate them, and confirm that they would still prefer to leave the group.
- Ensure that everyone rides in a safe and careful manner, appropriate for the road conditions.
- Ensure that if anyone has a mechanical issue or an accident, they have the means to get home safely: cash, a phone, a train station or a buddy to stay with them.