Lol so competitive.

I do a lot of hiking and it's amazing the shape some older people are in. My hero was an 80-something guy I once shared a ski lift ride with when I was in my 30s. I thought man if I could still be skiing when I'm 80 instead of sitting in some rocking chair, I'll be so happy..

Too funny. Two days ago I was headed out on an easy day and saving myself for a hard ride the next day. So 8 miles in I see two guys just heading out for a ride from a local parking lot. I am cruzing at 20 and approaching a slight downhill on a right turn where I know I can easily hit 25 and blast by them. So they are just at the bottom of the turn when I smoke them. Guess they were going 18. In not more than 1 minute, one of the guys blasts by me going 23-24 on the flats. Of course I give chase (because I am an overly competitive dumb $h!t) and this guy goes at the same clip for the next 2-3 miles as I keep pace at a distance. He is not slowing so he gets the last laugh as I start to fry and drop down to 18-19 and he quickly disappears into the distance. Never saw the guy he started with. Since I worked so hard to see if he would blow up, I decided WTF and went and did my local half mile 6-8% gradient climb.

I abandoned my hard ride the next day half way through because the legs were still fried and took a shortcut back. Paid the stoopid tax.

so you're break away was successful, and you need a mirror

Even with a mirror, I'd still do over the shoulder glances. It sends a message to those behind me that I am looking. I hear quite frequently from motorists complaining about cyclists "hogging the lane" that the cyclist never even knew the motorist was behind them. I feel confident that motorists and some cyclists don't recognize when a rider has a mirror.