I want to see if anyone here has some insight into something that happened today... maybe I'm missing something obvious. I went for a ride today, a little 18 mile loop just to break up the day. As I was returning home I passed two cyclists in full kit. The road is very narrow and very much a back road. As I approached them I waved and said, "How ya' doing?" At this point I was perhaps 10 feet from them. They both looked at me (almost in unison) and then looked away without so much as a nod. I actually rode away pissed. They're that effing cool? What gives? The only thing I can think is they looked at me and said to themselves "This guy is not a serious cyclist, we're not even going to acknowledge him."

I'll give some more detail so as to give some perspective and to possibly offer some explanation. I could not tell what their kit said, but it was matching. I didn't even see what kind of bikes they were on except that they were nice road bikes. I was traveling at perhaps 15 miles and hour and them more like 12. They were pedaling slowly almost as if they were just winding down from a ride or warming up. The ground was flat and I was just coming off of a slight decline. There was no way they didn't see me wave, although I guess they may not have heard me say anything... they were wearing ear warmer things. I am clearly not a true roadie with my nondescript "kit" and I was wearing a Giro urban/all purpose style helmet with the old "team Z" logo on it. My bike is a hot pink, 25 year old Greg Lemond steel framed bike, but it does have all new parts (mix of Veloce and Ultegra). My shoes are SPD style and clearly not road shoes. My saddle bag is a little larger than most roadies.

I am clearly not a dedicated roadie, but I always see other cyclists along the route and I always wave and so do they. I would not think much of this, but we were so close and traveling so slow it was obvious that they intentionally ignored me. Am I not aware of some serious roadie code? Does anybody know roadies who won't wave at other cyclists they deem to be less deserving? I know this shouldn't bother me, but it does. This was not a life changing event and I won't lose sleep over it, I promise, but I thought the 41 could give me some insight. At any rate, I'll try to make my kit match my bike a little better next time I step out .