As for that particular shot, I'm thinking the last thing the riders want is a bright light or flash in their face from straight ahead. They come to that point and see nothing other than your light.You might think about shooting from the side rather than directly ahead, even if it's not exactly the shot you want, just to protect the cyclists' night vision. I would suggest no more than 45 degrees in front of perpendicular.

The problem you're discovering is that you have to have light to take a picture. Placing the light so you get your picture without interfering with the subject's action can be a challenge.

Even a compact camera will be able to use its flash light the full field of its lens, though, which would be an improvent over what you were able to do here, and a flash might be more tolerable to the riders than a steady floodlight. But silhouetting against the moon? The moon's just going to be a white dot in the pic unless you zoom it far enough to make it a major portion of the frame, and even then it's probably going to be just a biogger white dot.

The other thing you're discovering is that the eye can see things the camera just can't. Also, when you look at a scene, you see selectively. You take in those branches in front of the moon and think, "Hey, that's kind of cool looking!" Your camera tries to take in everything it's pointed at, and tries very hard to force something to show up. Darks are black and lights are white, all washed out.