Hi Roderick - welcome to Hightailers and cycling. There's a good description of the ride ratings on the Forum page Rides & Events>Weekly Rides. If you look down toward the bottom of the page, you'll see descriptions about ride speed and distance. Hope this helps. It's good cycling 'etiquette" to ride with a group that's about your level so you don't hold people up. You might want to check out the Bluff City Blues (BCB) 100 training team as a way to get into cycling. I did it last year and had a lot of fun working toward completing a 100 mile ride in October. You can watch the website and forums for more information. I think we started in April last year.