Seattle Forrest

We all know the drill. You're gliding down a hill thinking about something else, when someone on a hybrid mountain bike comes flying down the hill and passes you aggressively, all but yelling "so long, sucker!" on the way by, or throwing a glove down. But you know all of his speed comes from the hill, and that you'll catch him on the flats.

It's not a race.

How many people find themselves in impromptu races on the street or on the trail? Why do you do it? Does this motivate you to ride longer or harder or smarter? And do you find yourself ever training because somebody passed you, when you don't think they should have been able to? On the other side of the coin, has anybody had any luck saying "I'm going to let this one go - it'd be a fair race if I hadn't already rode 35 miles today."

What are your stories?

You don't have to be a bike commuter to play, by the way. It might as well be Silly Bike Racing.

eshvanu

So, there was this Beagle...

daffonce

I'm sure I left a lot of people shaking their heads this past Saturday morning. I coming in at a svelte 275 lbs. riding a lowly Trek 2.1 road bike in a 14 mile road course of a triathlon. I had the 32nd fastest bike time on the course which had 212 participants. I'm sure there were more than one that shook their head to see my fat ass come pedaling by after the deep voice from behind said "on your left". Passing rider after rider riding on their $5,000+ tri bikes all spiffy in the aero bars weighing in somewhere south of 170 lbs. Yeah sure some of them passed me on a few of the hills, but all were repassed on the flats. Man I know if I passed me I would be pissed, and would be pedaling my hardest to undo the pass. A lot of them did have their revenge though on the run course. Ok so that was in an actual race, but I thought it fit in pretty well.

rockdog

"On the other side of the coin, has anybody had any luck saying "I'm going to let this one go - it'd be a fair race if I hadn't already rode 35 miles today.""

Yeah, that's more like me. Sometimes you get passed, sometimes you do the passing, there's always a bigger fish - whatever. Guess I just don't have the competitive spirit, riding is something I do for the joy of it.

EKW in DC

I think about it and I occasionally use someone up ahead on the trail as a "rabbit". I used to take joy just in not getting passed as much. Now I occasionally take joy in passing - especially 150 lb. roadie types in full team kit w/ a carbon frame bike vs. me w/ my fenders and rack and panniers, etc. Of course, I try not to delude myself b/c maybe they're on their way home from some long club ride. Either that or they just have a much bigger bank account than I do and bought a better bike. Either way, any serious rider w/ a good road bike is going to be faster than me just about whenever they want all things being equal so I read very little into it.

In any event, I do sometimes try to keep track of my Silly Commuter Racing game points if there are a lot of cyclists out and about on a ride home. That being said, if someone passes me, I don't get up out of the saddle and go into full out sprint to pass them back.

The whole thing is just a silly little game, thus the name.

TrojanHorse

Ha ha... all the damn time!

The most humiliating was when I was younger and I passed some guy on a mountain bike wearing a backpack with his DRY CLEANING!!!, his DRY CLEANING I TELL YOU, was hung from the top loop of his backpack... so it was flapping in the wind.

I passed him at the base of the hill and went my hardest up the hill. Got to the top and finally looked over my shoulder to see how bad I beat that guy and he went breezing by and said "thanks for the draft" as he did.



Man, that still cracks me up to this day.

I used to ride with a bunch of guys every Thursday night and one of them rode a mountain bike with slicks and could lock out his front fork suspension... he could and did kick my butt frequently.

But yeah, unless it's Lance Armstrong on his TT bike, I generally use people who pass me as motivation, even if I'm in the later miles of a long day, gives me something to think about other than my numb hands. There's always somebody faster out there, and that's fine.

Wogster

You could probably set a person time record drafting Lance, when he is in race mode.... Actually think it would be kinda cool to do a nice leisure ride with him, be an interesting fellow to have a chat with.... Probably tell you what a monumental pain in the *** top level racing really is. Had one time, I was on the mountain bike, came up to a light beside a guy who was on an all carbon fancy pants bike worth about 10 times what my mountain bike was. Light turns green, his fancy clip-in pedals decide to not clip, it's a downgrade, I was about a kilometre alongl, before he got everything working...... He never did catch up.

Seattle Forrest

But they know in their heart of hearts that that's no excuse...

The other night I passed a spandex rider on a carbon fiber bike in the narrowing maze that leads up to the Montlake Bridge. The same way traffic is funneled down before the bottleneck, it opens up slowly again on the other side, and there are a handful of turns before you get onto the Burke Gilman Trail. Once I got in front of the guy, he wasn't able to pass me for about a mile. So I kept a moderate pace, and used the time to get a little bit of rest, then sprinted when we hit the trial. He didn't get around me, and I prevented another spandex/fiber cyclist from passing me at the same time.

LarDasse74

When I lived in Toronto I lived in the north-west part of the city and lived inthe south east and commuted each day on my bike. Sometimes I would weave through side streets and back lanes and sometimes I would go straight down Bloor/Danforth - a main east-west artery. On Bloor - Danforth I would encounter dozens of other cyclists playing 'the game.' I had a longer route than most of them and so riders would join in for a few kms and turn off, then another would take up the chase. I was faster than some shaved leg roadies and slower than some middle-aged women on hoopty bikes with baskets.

taos07

People almost always get pissed when I pass them up riding this:
boneshaker_standa.jpg

CACycling

Guilty. If I'm ahead, I'll crank to keep the lead. If I'm behind, I'll crank to stay with them (but not close enough to draft). I'll hold it as long as I can but will not pass unless they slow.

Last weekend, I was riding with my wife. She is a 13 - 15 MPH rider most of the time so I stay behind as I've found that when I lead, she gets dropped. I saw a roadie (easily 20 years younger than me and in much better condition too) coming up behind us so I gave him room to pass. He wasn't going too fast, maybe 18 MPH or so. I tried to get my wife to give chase. She told me to go for it if I wanted. I did.

I matched his speed but stayed 50 yards back. I was enjoying the pace when he looked back (presumably to see how far he'd dropped us) and saw I was with him. He cranked it up a notch and so did I. He gave it some time and looked back again. I was still with him. We were now cruizing at about 22 MPH and he cranked it another notch. He started pulling away so I slowed to catch my breath and see how far behind my wife was.

He looked back and was satisfied he'd taught me a lesson and dropped his speed. That was all I needed. A quick sprint and I was catching him again. He looked back and lit out at top speed. Apparently he was taking no chances because he didn't slow down when he'd thoroughly dropped me for the second time. I decided it was time to stop and let my wife catch up. It felt good to let it out a bit and I'm sure he got a better workout than he'd planned as well.

mcflyfisher

My commute to nursing school is 24.58 miles. I am about 230# and 6'. I have my book bag with me both ways, and I ride a MTB with slicks, fenders, and rack. The bulk of my ride is on a bike trail. I have had to practice great self control to stay at my pace, and not chase the roadies. I have proven to myself that I can ride with a lot of them, but they are normally riding less miles, and carrying less stuff. (That is what i am telling myself anyway). The fact that I am closer to 40 than 20 (or 30) is also a factor, but I don't like to think about that. My point is, it is harder for me to let them go riding past, than it is to try to keep up with them.

bautieri

Why limit it to commuting? I'm racing everyone and everything...they just didn't get the memo.

Kotts

Guilty. I do it all the time. If I see a cyclist up ahead, I'll try to close the gap. If I have any steam left, I'll pass.

Is it silly? Yes. Does it help me push myself? Yes. Is it fun? H@ll yes! :-)

aidanpryde18

I'm like a dog, I like to chase cars. Whenever I'm on 25 mph roads and a car passes, I use it as an interval and try to keep up as long as possible. Same with fast cyclists, I don't expect to win, but it can break up the monotony some times.

Daspydyr 

Me and a couple of chubby friends ride mountain bikes. Whenever a pack of roadies appears close by I like to yell- "LOOK, ROADIES, LETS DROP EM!" Its usually good for a mile or so of huffinandpuffin. Its a rush to see what can happen.

MOST Embarrassing race!?! was against a three legged dog. I was in Riodosa, NM and had spent a trail riding trails. I was taking a short cut over a hill to Main Street for a sloppy cheeseburger and a brew. I heard a dog barking and finally saw the 3 legged beast, behind a fence. But then he raced me to a drainage under the fence and was charging me. A couple of trucks coming down the hill saw what was happening and pulled over and the people were rooting for the dog. I decided that there was no way I would kick a three legged dog, nor would I loose to him. It was a 150 yard sprint to the top of the hill, but I won. Stupid teenagers were cheering the dog the whole time.

BasicJim

I do it all the time. I look for it. It's motivation for me!

On the bike trail last week I passed a roadie going the other direction. He had his full kit on and looked like a string bean. I gave him a smile and friendly wave and the Dou***bag didn't even nod. I rode on for about 3 more minutes until I hit the end of the bike trail, then turned around and headed back to my car. It didn't take me long to see him in the distance. I hammered as hard as I could and was passed him and out of his sight before I got back to the car.

I guess I just felt like I needed to prove a fat guy on a entry level Trek had a right to be out there and acknowledged.

I know, he may have been going slow warming up, or starting a 50 mile ride or something else that would make him not be up to speed, but I felt better and I had a great ride.

jbman100

If I'm on my daily commute I leave them alone. If I'm on a training ride I have nothing to lose and will go for it part of the time. Depends if I'm on a speed day or a distance day.

Seattle Forrest

I said "Hey! It's a race!" to someone as I passed him once. He didn't seem to believe me. In hindsight, I think that's hysterical. My girlfriend at the time wanted to kick my arse, though.

Mr. Beanz

I do all the time. My wife is a decent rider, 18.4 best average on a 42 mile ride but she doesn't care for the constant surges involved in friendly comp so I don't involve her. After a mile or two, we get passed by plenty of riders while warming up. I've learned to avoid them, I don't let anyone distract me from our game plan. It would be stupid to involve my wife in a 30 mph sprint 2 miles into a 50 or 60 miler.

Kneez

I don't do the silly racing bit mostly because I can't. If someone zooms by me it is probably because they are stronger and/or I am wiped out. If it so happens that I catch someone who passed me then i do feel a certain sense of satisfaction. What I do do is mark people ahead of me if i think i might be able to catch them. I can usualy tell fairly quickly if I am closing the gap or not. If I am then I feel like I accomplished something when I reach them. Oddly enough, I don't really feel the need to pass. If the gap is not getting any smaller I just let the whole thing go. I am not going to waste whatever energy i might still have left to go chasing after them.

wild animals

I don't chase cyclists but I do my best to keep them from passing me. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't! I love to chase cars, though. "Yep! Still here!"

Seattle Forrest

I was riding on an MUP, when I saw someone ahead of me, and the Jaws music started playing. But then I saw that he was a Clyde, too, on a mountain bike with flat bars, platform pedals, and the guy had a backpack on. So, while he was still about 100 feet ahead of me, I decided not to put any energy into passing the guy; it wouldn't be a contest anyway. Then my new friend looked back over his shoulder, saw me, and upped his speed by about 50 %. The race was on! I knew he was using a lot of energy in his sprint, so I kept my speed constant for a moment, but started pulling the pedals up instead of pushing them down, to use a different set of muscles, and then sped up as we approached the hill. I past the guy going up the hill, and kept on at high speed for the next mile or two, at which point he disappeared over the horizon behind me.

TrojanHorse

What a cheeky bugger!