It's hard to hold your temper when you've got a nice flow of exercise adrenaline already pumping from the ride, and then get road raged upon. But 10 years worth of these interactions has taught me that letting the cagers piss me off just ruins my ride. It has taken years to train myself not to respond to every honk with a one fingered wave, to not yell back, to just let it go.

Lately I've been operating under the theory that if I respond to their anger with unwavering cheeriness, it pisses them off even more while giving me a smug sense of satisfaction. Call it the I'm Rubber, You're Glue theory of road rage. They honk, I wave. They flip the bird, I flip the peace sign or a thumbs up. I had a shiny new pickup roll up along side me one winter morning some years ago when I was living in South Lake Tahoe, the driver hollered out of window for me to get an f'ing job and called me a hippy. I yelled back thanking him for watching out for cyclists and gave him a huge grin. He roared off without another word, running the stop sign that we were approaching in the process. I guess that he was seeing so much red that the sign didn't stand out at all. That is when I realized that I was Rubber.

I think I'd only call the cops if I felt threatened. I've yet to experience that level of rage, and hopefully never will.