We provide for your entertainment another installment of Boneheaded Cyclist Wins Friends, Influences People

So it's Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago in Long Beach and I'm west bound on the MUP that runs along the beach from the peninsula in Belmont Shores to Shoreline Village. Anybody that lives here knows this is no place to hammer, especially on weekends, when the path is filled with dogs, pedestrians, cyclists, toddlers, skateboarders, speed-walkers, roller-bladers, you name it. This is a place to cruise, sight see and get your heart rate back down.

I get to the Belmont Pool and next thing I know, I'm in the middle of a running event. It's an out and back so the MUP is filled with runners going both directions. I could have bailed and popped up to Ocean Blvd. but there were pleny of gaps, so I just matched runners speed at 5 mph and went with the flow on the right side. No drama, life is good.

I saw him coming down the center towards me from about 50 yards out. He appeared to be an avid cyclist (full roadie kit, shaved legs, etc.) and was storming down the center of the path between the two lines of runners at about double the speed of the runners, and angrily yelling, "coming through! That's right, I'm riding here! ..." He was essentially playing chicken with the runners in the center. If they had not jumped out of his way, he would have hit them.

What he left in his wake was literally scores of pissed off runners. People kind of glanced at me, as if to say, "what gives with you guys." What is ironic to me is how cyclists resent their treatment by impatient motorists, but when the shoe is on the other foot, they mirror the same behaviors and attitudes towards pedestrians.