Commuting - I rule!!!

Remember that scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacey said that?

I had that moment last night.

I was having a great ride home and was in a v good mood and coming onto the Forth Road Bridge. On the flat approach, I became aware that someone was cycling up beside me so I glance round and there was a guy in a skinsuit, black stripped down road bike, tri bars etc.

I said "Hi, great day". and he completely blanked me! I was in my usual cycling shirt and shorts on my 39 year old (restored) Flying Scot with rack and a pannier so maybe he thought it was beneath him to acknowledge me.

Anyway, he slid past and I decided I would see if I could hold on to his wheel. After a hundred yards or so we were coming to the climb to the bridge centre (it's a reasonable long climb - ask Toolfreak :)) and I realised he wasn't pulling away and not only that, I was feeling that I could change up a gear!. So, I dug in and changed up and started to pull past. He didn't even glance at me but tried to accelerate. I dropped him like a used handkerchief. :)

I pulled a gap of about 6 or 7 bike lengths and then it stayed stable. As we crossed over the top of the bridge to the descent, I rattled up through the gears and in no time was in top, doing about 28mph.

He was behind me(glancing back I could see his shadow) and he was getting closer but he couldn't catch me.

When I pulled off the bridge at the end he was perhaps 3 bike lengths back, on his tri bars.

I was grinning like a Cheshire cat :D

41 year old bloke, 39 year old bike, beats a 20 ish year old bloke and much newer bike.

I rule.!

(Sure he'd have left me for dead if we'd been going a lot further though)

The perfect antidote for bike snobs. Well done.:D

He was way out of line to blank you.

However, he may well have been on a very specific training ride. Maybe he was at the start or end of an 60 miler, and didn't want to waste time racing.

There's been times I've been passed other cyclists and I've wanted to yell "Well I've already ridden 80 miles, that's why I look like ****e!"

On the other hand you probably just blew the young punk away!

Stew

Great way to hammer!
I had a very similar incident happed on my way home from work yesterday. I took the long way home so I had just done about 30 miles, with about 5 to go. I’m in a left turn lane with cars behind and in front of me. The lane turns into a construction area, from paved to a chewed up gravely surface for about ½ mile. The light turns green, I’m about a foot away from the bumper of the car in front, while the car behind is revving it’s engine. As we exit the turn the little sports car behind me spins his wheels and swerves to pass me. I’m riding my cyclocross bike with drop bars – doesn’t look like it handles well in gravel, but it does. As the car comes abreast with me, we both pass the car in front leaving the road wide open ahead. Since the road was so chewed up, and we were beginning to pick up serious speed, the little sports car started bouncing and scrapping the ground, losing control and speed, while I just motored away. By the time I turned of the road I was 50 yards ahead of him – with a chest that felt like it was going to explode. It was awesome, if only to me, to be able to do once what is done to me several times a day, and knowing that the driver of the little sports car did try to pass me, but only managed to do damage to his/her car.

Stew has a point. While I agree that the guy's unfriendliness was uncalled for, I've also been on the other end of these sorts of "challenges" -- mostly from local kids who see me coming through their neighborhoods on a summer's evening and "wanna race?"

I'm sure any of those 14 year olds could outpace me for the two blocks they consider a race. I don't care. I'm not interested. Just because I'm not in a steel cage doesn't mean I'm doing a social circuit.

No, I don't wanna race. I don't wanna talk. I don't want to interact with anybody. I'm in a mental space and maintaining a physical pace that have nothing to do with anybody else.

This is particularly true when I'm doing a long ride, a metric or a full century. I can't possibly complete a century if I'm going to try to match every college rider who passes me going uphill. It's not what I'm there for, and I'm just not interested.

It's only a race when everybody involved agrees that it is. But I don't begrudge anybody's sense of self-satisfaction when they beat me to the top of a hill; it doesn't cost me anything to not care about what someone I don't know and will never see again thinks of me.

RichC

Don't misunderstand me. My point was

1) it wouldn't kill the guy to acknowledge a felow cyclist

2) When passing, he tried to drop me, so the gauntlet was down.

I get the same thing with people who only cycle a mile or so blasting past when I'm at the end of a 40 mile Sunday run. But I alwats say hello! :)

Hey, it's always fun to see if you can keep up with someone, especially if they are already too out of breath to speak!

hehe...

:)

Originally posted by sscyco
Great way to hammer!
I took the long way home so I had just done about 30 miles, with about 5 to go.

What route do you commute? When I'm able to I ride the Newport Highway. I haven't for some time due to the construction. It looks like it should be finished soon though.

Acknowledging others seems to be a lost art. You've got to be pretty focused or pretty tired if you can't spare just a smile or nod when someone greets you.

Hehe, a :thumbup: to both chewa and sscyco! Snobs and hotshot "get-out-of-my-way" motorists both deserve eye-openers. :)

I remember hounding a snob who couldn't take the trouble to reply to my "hello" as he passed on his fancy Italian-steel bike. I began following him at a distance of about 100m riding no-hands for a while :D and when he looked back after a while, there was that kid in the t-shirt and denim shorts, zooming along no-hands on that decrepit touring bike with the racks/generator lights/fenders... and I made sure to get gradually closer until we hit a long climb, where I grabbed onto his wheel for a while just to persecute him, then pulled out and dropped him good and proper Wish I were still in that kind of shape today... :rolleyes:

Or there was the time I hounded a road rider on my Schwinn Typhoon single-speed cruiser... :)

Originally posted by chewa
Remember that scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacey said that?

Great movie - great post!!! :)

rich clarke you are a hard hard man

chewa I agree with you man. rude people should be subjected to being stuck behind london taxis in the summer for eternity.

when these guys f*** me off, I tend to go home and build a 60 foot wicker model of them, which I then ritually set on fire. calms me down no end

cool green grass cool green grass

CHEWA RULES!!!
:beer: Bike snobs can eat the old mans dust!:beer:

Not saying "Hi" when you pass someone is an invitation to being dropped.

Don't try that crap with me, if you can't say hello on a bike, you should be driving a car!

CHEERS.

Mark