Sometime in the late '80s I was on a ride with a bunch of other cat. 1 and professional track racers. We were on a beach path, partly because traffic on the parallel street was extremely heavy, partly because we were on an off-season/recovery/goof-off ride, and partly because elite track racers like to look at pretty girls in bikinis just like everyone else.

Anyway, the short of it is that we were in a 17 MPH double paceline in a low traffic area, and we got yelled at by a recreational rider on a low-end road bike because we'd "buzzed" him. There was maybe a 5 MPH speed differential and we gave him maybe 18 inches of space while passing.

The general reaction of the "racer doods" was bewilderment. Eighteen inches is about twenty more than that type needs to execute a pass, and in races like the madison, those passes are executed with twenty-five or thirty MPH speed differentials. Why this particular fellow got whiny about being given a luxurious foot-and-a-half of space -- even though he was wobbling around in the middle of the lane as though he was the only human being in existence -- was a mystery. I think the general consensus was that he needed bike handling lessons. Or perhaps a hanky.

So aside from shooting down the point that pros don't ever ride on bike trails, the lesson here is that A) some folks are more comfortable on bikes than others B) some folks need to get the hell out of the way.

And thanks for letting me share!