Originally Posted by jock
On the bike this morning I've got a fairly cracking pace up and I go past this dude who's struggling to make 20kays up a small rise. He catches up with me a little later at a set of lights. Brief chat and we're off. Ahead is one of the more painful and dangerous little climbs, with cars chopping and changing all over the place, drivers getting aggro with each other and innocent cyclists.
The guy clearly wanted a ride partner for that section. I wanted to keep the pace up and complete my quota of suffering. So I left him in my wake to fend for himself.
So what should I have done: do the social thing and ride with him for a chat and risk getting tangled up in commuter hell, or stick to the training plan and let him sort out his own problems?
Clearly you're feeling a bit guilty about this - which makes you a nice bloke with a conscience. HOWEVER, if you were on a schedule and he wasn't in obvious trouble/distress, then sticking to your own plan was appropriate.
I'm assuming your schedule wasn't so tight that you couldn't have slowed down and ridden with this guy which is why your conscience is tickling you. On the other hand, putting yourself into a potentially dangerous situation in order to help out or be nice to someone else is never a wise thing to do, so either way, you did the right thing.