Soo... I'm new here, and I have searched around and seen this covered in various forms, but what the hell. I also got lectured for bumping an old thread, so what the hell.

What's your take on these people? I will be the first to admit that I'm a competitive person. I don't like being dropped, and I make pretty decent time getting to work, but I also feel like compared to a lot of people I see out there I'm a reasonably safe and law-abiding rider.

I don't make a point of showing up people, and there are a lot of faster riders than me out there, but if someone is plodding along in front of me I will take the next safe opportunity to pass them. It's not because I want to be some kind of hotshot. It's because I want a unobstructed view of the road and a chance to ride at my own pace.

Unfortunately, some people don't take it this way. The other day I passed a guy up a hill. There was probably half a block between us when I got to the top, and since I wasn't running that late this particular day I decided not to change over to the big ring and take it kind of easy down the other side. I'm cruising along minding my own business and do a fairly standard head check back before dropping into a higher traffic area.

I practically jumped out of my shoes when I saw this idiot RIGHT on my wheel - overlapping wheels in fact, on a 25+ mph descent. This particular area is bad enough dealing with cars and idiots stumbling out of Starbucks into the street without people pulling stunts like this. I guess I should also mention this was a bike lane with parked cars, and by sitting on my left like this he was forcing me way further to the right than I am comfortable with. If he wanted to take the lane for a second and blow by me, I would have been fine with that, but he seemed to be relishing having caught me and enjoying just hanging out there.

The other thing that bothers me is people who try to pass me when they're clearly not going fast enough to get by me quickly and keep up a pace that's sufficient to put some distance between us when they do. I'll slow down to let them by if I need to just to keep them from hanging out there, because they just don't want to give up. I don't want to speed up and drop them, because that will only piss them off.

What do you say to these people? I feel compelled to say something, but this being nicey-nice Seattle I'm afraid of it being taken the wrong way.