I was on my way home the other day and after climbing out of the valley overtook and passed a fellow about my age (I'm 42) on a pretty nice mtb doing a good clip... he caught up to me at a light and with a smile said... "you are really making me look bad".

I was riding my extracycle with some huge paniers attached to the sides.

I have only had a few folks try and race me on the commute... I tend to ride pretty fast and my 10 mile commute used to be a ride that I could do in as little as 23 minutes... the body still isn't up to this yet.

I was coming down a really busy street and went to pass a young fellow on a fixed gear since I was moving along much faster (on my fixed gear) and when I came alongside he looked at me and gunned it so that he was staying directly to my right and preventing me from moving over.

It was a definite invitation.

I was taking it easy until this happened and decided that instead of dropping behind him (and having to pass him again) I would do the opposite so put the hammer down and left him like he was parked... I guess this guy thought his laps around the block and trips to and from Starbucks were sufficient training to school some old guy on a scruffy vintage fixed gear with paniers.

The old guy was riding over 1000 miles a month at the time.

I was riding with my little sister the other day and we came up behind three fellows in full kit making a show of it on a busy and well travelled street... I was on the longbike and she was on her mtb commuter and we just spun along behind them at about 30 kmh for a good distance until they realized they must have looked pretty lame with a couple of middle aged folks hanging off their back wheels.

When they really traded the show for go these guys were fast.