All,

Saturday is Farmer’s Market day. I rode my town bike down a bit early and found the vendors were still setting up for business. Rather than stand around waiting I set off to get a few miles in and enjoy the morning breeze.

Heading back to the market I was rolling along musing on the relative merits of preparing chives for an Omelet des Herbes using a mezzaluna vs. a chef’s knife when I had the feeling that a cyclist was on my wheel. A glance back showed a rider sprawled praying mantis style on a time trialish bike just beyond my rear mudguard.

“That’s odd” I thought and expected a clean surging pass with a polite “On your left” at any moment. The moment dragged on and on some more as I proceeded to turn a moderate gear at a stately pace toward farm fresh eggs and Amish cheese. Perhaps he’s feeling ill or is just recovering from a desperate TT effort I wondered as a mile and then another gradually passed by with the drafting rider churning a giant gear in my wake.

Arriving at the stop sign at the Farmer’s Market the young fellow pulled up next to me and I just had to ask:

“Why didn’t you just pass grand-dad on the ancient three speed way back there?"
“I couldn’t turn my head far enough to see if there was a car coming up from behind.” he replied.

So much for Modern Technology.

-Bandera