I typically ride alone because it is difficult to find people who totally understand the reason why I ride alone. on rare occasions, I ride with a buddy because I know him and he understand totally how I feel and he tend to respect that. I did ride with one friend, and he would quip every some km saying that I wasn't fast enough, or I cannot keep up, causing me to become riled up.

To sum up the reason why I ride alone, to me, cycling is a way for me to get stress relief, get into the zone where life is good and I feel good. Normally it will take me a minimum of 1 hour of riding for me to get into that zone, then, i can just enjoy the bliss and nothing will ruin that except an irascible competitive person who complain constantly that I cannot keep up to his brand new, super light, 29 speed, fully suspension mountain bike. (I ride a hard tail, soon 20 year old, steel, and front suspension bike, with 24 speed)

Have you ever gotten in that zone of "bliss and peacefulness" when you cycle?

W