Jrather

On one of the Tuesday night hammerfest rides, a group of 6 kids sitting in a Friendly's restaurant eating saw the 30 of us coming down the road and ran out of the restaurant yelling "Allez! Allez!" as the peloton glided through downtown. All we need now is a TV copter to follow the ride and take footage.

trigger

Yes.

First ride of the season this year and I'm a few lengths ahead of my riding partners heading along a flat, wide road at a pretty serious clip. On the sidewalk there is an elderly man, well dressed with a cap (not a ballcap, but a hat), scarf, jacket ... very sharp, and thick, thick glasses. When he saw me we made eye contact and he broke into a huge grin. He clapped as I rode by and yelled "Allez! Allez!"

Best thing of that sort that's ever happened to me while riding. Made my afternoon, and it seems, from the look of real joy on his face, that my friends and I made his.

mrvrsick

So I tired shouting allez today. Mid 40s guy waiting for a light to turn green, riding on a bmc. As it turns green and he passes in front of me, I pump my fist and shout "allez, allez!"

I don't think he got it... then he continued to ride onto the sidewalk... on a lane wide enough for almost two cars.

Razorhoof

When my social riding group goes out on our "cool" bikes and we are obviously having a blast into Mexican town, the passerbys and various motorists express jovial approval and obvious common intent.

davids0507

I very rarely get any discouraging yells. Usually it's related to the outfit (I walked into a Peet's to talk to a friend and someone murmured, "That guy's got balls..."), or how I'm passing someone.

I get the most encouragement when I'm climbing fast. One of the hills I climb to get out of town has a lot of people milling about, and I'm usually surprised how many people notice me and give encouraging looks or motions. Last week I was hammering up an extended incline at a ridiculous speed (there had previously been a downhill and I kept the momentum), like ~27mph, and one of the top local guys flew past me in the opposite direction, gave me a confused look, and did a double-take -- he was trying to figure out who the hell I was. I took that as a compliment.

While running I've gotten all sorts of yells. The two nicest were:
1. On a disgustingly humid day in Florida, I was doing a track working with my shirt off (believe me, it's not a pretty sight) and this huge football/shotput guy pointed at me to his friend as I was running towards/past him. I'm pretty used to heckling so I put my game face on and tried to ignore him, so it took me a couple of seconds to process what he had said about me: "That's my goal."
2. I was finally hitting the downhill on a tempo run and really starting to fly, when I heard some yelling behind me. A car came by with a few guys in it, two of them stuck their heads out the window, shouting, "YEAH!!", one of them shook his fist in the air, the other taped me for a second or two with a video camera as they rolled past. It felt inspiring at the time, I felt great for the rest of the workout.

Homebrew01

I went for a short early morning spin the other day and as I passed a 10 or 11 year old kid waiting for the bus, he watched me go by and earnestly said "Be Careful !" .......... "Thanks, I will"

A touching way to start the day.

sisyphus321

A 60-65 year old man yelled "nice f**king ass" at me when I was waiting at a stoplight. I'm not sure if he was trying to be nice or encouraging though.

Grumpy McTrumpy

We had a few people yell encouraging words at us during Thursday Night Worlds last night, just as we were passing their farm.

audioslavery

OP's story is pretty dang heartwarming. That's awesome.

Barese Rider

1. Nice bike. Surprisingly not in jest at a black,old Nishiki Prestige..
2. While wearing a fathers day present of one of those red and yellow Colavito Cycle Shirts Im at a light and a big Mercedes pulls up with two couples in it and I can tell the ladies are looking at me. Finally one of them puts down the window and starts complimenting me on the shirt.
3. While struggling up a hill a nasty ol dog starts barking at and chasing me while I was about 100 yards from a point where I could get up any speed, some guy in a pickup truck gets between me and the dog allowing me to get the top of the hill in one piece and while passing me gives me the thumbs up.

shapelike

Some guy yelled "OLYMPICS!" at me as I went by.

bikegeekmn

it does'nt happen often enough but I have gotten encouragment a couple times ,the best one is a couple of teens got next to me on a long downhill run gave me a thumbs up and pulled in front then tried to move over a little to get me in a draft-made me more than a little nervous-after being in front for a little bit the passenger started holding fingers out of the window to let me know the speed they must have seen breaking away and not seen i have a computer on the bike although they were trying to be cool ,trying to draft a car withsomeone you do'nt know driving going 47mph was a little unnerving

Busta Quad

A group of inner-city youths in a car passed me and the passenger yelled "pedal faster b**ch!!!!"

It was fairly motivating.

fauxto nick

"nice ass lance"

patentcad

As I quietly sailed past the fat 50+ sub-fred thrashing about near the top of that final 500 meter Orange Tpke climb (that's the 7th little grinding grade in 3 miles, the grade in that last 150 meters kicks up to 12%+) I quietly said 'Yeah, it's my favorite climb too'. I like to think this inspired him. It helped me squeeze out the last few yards of that stupid climb that's for sure.

I felt spunky on those climbs today. Oh yes. F the world by the way.

Erzulis Boat 

Talking smack is a good training tool, once you yap, you gotta perform.

Some dude flatted on "Death Hill" (by Hendry's beach), and I did the old "Don't give up yet, I believe in you!" or something to that effect.

He must have changed his tire in record time, because by the time I was cresting Shoreline he was gaining on my ass, pissed as hell. I had to hold him at bay all the way back through 192..........man, that ride was a killer. That was one of my funnest rides.

malpag3

Yep, I've had someone ring a cowbell at me from a car. They had quite a few cycling related stickers on their bumper so I knew it was well intentioned.

Yesterday I had an "Allez!" yelled. Good times.

thump55

My view: The other night, I was heading to town in my car. It was pouring rain, and it had been pouring for a while. I saw a guy pounding it out hard solo and I knew that he didn't just get caught in a shower. He went out to pound it knowing what he was in for. I'm not really a yeller, but put a thumbs up out the window, which he may not even have been able to see through his glasses.

His view: So the other night it's raining hard, but I decide to go for a ride anyway because my wife is b!tch!ing up a storm at home and I can't stand listening to her crap anymore. Some moron stuck his thumb out the window as he went by. WTF was that supposed to mean?

jasandalb

I was riding up a bridge and this lady was huffing and puffing...I ride up next to her and say "Keep pumping..almost there!!!'

She screamed as loud as an elephant....

I scared her.......

LGuapo

Does that count as positive? Seriously, though...living in Austin I most often hear people shout out "LANCE!"

HarryStoddard

+1

Coop500

Ok so today on my normal morning ride I passed an attracive lady jogging and once I got in front of her she said "nice a$s". If you've seen me lately you would agree with me, she must have been really lonely, LOL. I have about 25lbs too many on and look less than "attractive" . I just laughed and kept pedaling.

Quijibo187

I've yelled encouraging things to cyclists (from car and bike), in utah I leaned out the window and pumped my fist and yelled harder! harder! harder! to a guy going up a canyon (parleys I think).

He smiled.

Drag

The only compliments I get from motorists are the silent ones. And that is when they give me a full lane while at speed, and they patiently wait behind me until I can move on out after a stop. I live in a pretty congested area (suburbs of Chicago) so getting some elbow room is all I can hope for, and actually I've been mildly surprised with all the good motorist behavior I've received as of late.

There. I just jinxed myself. I'm gonna be run over by a soccer mom in an SUV tomorrow...

atlroadie

I do a lot of riding for Team in Training, and the kit usually gets nice responses from people. On one of our first training rides this year we have a gentleman stop with this at a stop light and thank us. We acknowledged his thanks generically, but he pressed. "No, you don't understand. I just my son at home who has leukemia. I really appreciate your work". It was nice to hear someone acknowledge we weren't on the road just to get in the way.