I believe he used cyclist in quotes to emphasis the word. Bold or some other variable might have had the same, desired effect.

CB, it's a difficult, and dangerous leap of assumption on all parts that leads to this type of identity fraud and misunderstanding. I spoke to a co-worker today who informed me that he saw me "walking the other day toward the building," co-worker Mo said. I affirmed that, yep, it probably was me. He called me a bum; jesting was the apparent intent. Ultimately, I asked him if he really thought I was giving the impression of being impoverished by simply walking to-and-from work and the university. They are geometrically "triangulated" perfectly from my condo - 2 miles give or take between all of them. His simple answer was that yes, in fact, I needed to "man up" and drive my car any distance greater than about 2-3 blocks. Bike or otherwise, if I wasn't in a car - I wasn't able to understand the adult world. Internally, I wanted to do some magic trick where I pulled his head out of his own ass with a satisfying "pop" sound from the obvious suction, but I did ask - and was answered.

On point of the post, this guy isn't abnormal or in any way out of the ordinary for the day-to-day individuals I meet in the RGV. If he thinks walking 2 miles is "too far," then he'd probably be insulted at the idea of almost any real commuting distance by bike, train, camel, bus or any other public transportation that didn't show his virility through his car. Generation after generation has taught boys that cars are the symbol of success, women like men who are successful - ergo - successful men who have women (and breed) do not ride bikes. With that logic, anybody on a bike is inferior and should GTFO of the way of "real men."