TL;DR:

Are you looking for a way to spice up group rides; here is my suggestion.

One person is elected the fox. At a agreed time, everyone should leave their homes. The fox gets a head start. The hounds can watch and predict where they are going

The fox must have their location enabled on Whatsapp in the group chat. The hounds do not. TOO LOOK AT LOCATION YOU MUST STOP CYCLING — IT DANGEROUS AND STUPID.

When someone catches the fox, they then become the fox and must stay together.

Setup

• Agree if you will be bound to the road, gravel or off road or a mix of all (no-one will enjoy bringing their roadie to a gravel track)
• Agree when you are doing it
• Agree where all hounds must start (in their homes or other area)
• The fox must leave their location on for the entire game
• The fox can start moving 20 minutes before the agreed upon time (tweak as required)

During

You may only check the location of the fox by coming to a complete stop. We can’t enforce this but is safer, it is better for all road users (including other cyclists), and adds an element of prediction of where the fox is going and a desire not to waste time constantly checking where they are going.

Catching the fox

The fox will only know you are close if they can see the hounds.

The fox has every right to sprint when they see the hounds. Chase them.

When (or if) you catch the fox, you become a fox and must stay together as you now try to evade the rest (initially making it harder to agree where to go, and making yourselves more predictable,

As the game continues, and the fox group becomes larger you will inadvertently allowing a peleton to form — so there is a real reason to find the fox ASAP!

End of the game

1. Either the group joins up as one and continues as a normal group ride for however many miles you all fancy.
2. Or we get tired and all go home.

Tips for the fox:

• This is essentially you route plan, use your strengths to your advantage (climbs, descents, etc)
• High ground can give you an idea of where the hounds are sometimes
• Cross roads are your friend
• Cycling near cafés does tend to distract some hounds…

Tips for the hounds:

• The fox has no idea where you are, if you think they are aiming somewhere, are they taking the direct route or are they trying to throw you off the scent?
• The best hounds will be the first ones to catch the fox ;)
• You can organise a pack/peleton to chase down the fox if you think speed will help (and you can agree where to chase)
• Only the person checking the map/fox location needs to stop — so if you are a peleton, someone could drop off, check the map and chase back
• Pinser movements don’t usually work as the fox doesn’t know where you are

P.S. Enjoy it

This is meant to be fun, don’t:

• constantly drop people
• cycle in places you wouldn’t want to cycle just because your less likely to be caught
• be a dick by cycling in impossible to predict patterns constantly turning around etc.

P.P.S It’s not a bug, it’s a feature

Phone signal can be bad, which can mean that the fox looks like they are somewhere they are not or it hasn’t updated yet.

Also punctures can happen so if they are not moving that may be why.

Enjoy the mystery of it.

P.P.P.S Surely someone will…

I am not saying you should, but this is something you can buy…