It’s Monday morning. It was a long weekend and despite being tired, damn it, I was still going to ride my bike into work.
The internal dialogue I have with myself on days like these is that ‘anything goes’ for getting into work as quickly and as lazily as possible (albeit while on the bike). That means
- Slicks for tire - drop the knobbies.
- Road bike if possible (I recently crunched one of my fingers and the vibration of the road bike is just enough to make me cry).
- Draft, draft, draft. Don’t let a roadie pass you without getting a chance to draft.
Simple enough ruleset. An effective one.
Roadie 1
I’ve seen this guy on San Tomas Expressway a lot. He use to have a mountain bike like me with really narrow slicks. He used to drop me everytime I tried to draft, now I can keep up, but exchanging pulls would mean he would have to slow down, a lot. At the next light I thank him for the pull and he says “no problem”.
We exchange small talk - “Where you headed?” “You do this everyday?” “Have a safe ride.” Done. Nice chit-chat, light turns green and he’s off.
Roadie 2
Roadie 2 is the kind of guy that makes sure you know he’s passing you. Which is good communication really. But that’s not why he’s doing it. He’s says it with a “Morning. I’m kicking your ass mountain biker. Guess I won’t be seeing you anytime soon.”
He doesn’t say it like that, but that’s what his face was saying. I don’t care what he’s saying actually, I’m more interested in following my basic ruleset. Draft, draft, draft. So I seize the opportunity.
He’s moving. My bike computer says we’re going 22, 23 mph. Not bad, that’s about as fast as I can pull on a MTB anyway. I’m inches off of his rear wheel.
He sees my shadow. He speeds up. 24, 25 mph. Whew, my legs are starting to get burned. This is fun, but there’s no way I could reciprocate this. Usually I am good, but most people I draft off of understand that mountain bikes just aren’t as fast as their road bikes.
Overpass. We climb, and he accellerates. I’m getting the feeling he’s trying to lose me. I push HARD to keep up. Down the back side. 26, 27, 28 mph.
Suddenly and without warning, roadie 2 decides enough is enough and I need to pull and jerks his bike to the left. Clearly he is familiar with the concept of exchanging pulls. But I’m spent, and we’re going 27 mph. I can maintain the speed, but he’s not slowing down enough for me to pass. Oh well. Guess we get to keep moving fast.
He moves back into the forward position and I get back on his wheel. My first thought is to make sure I thank him for the pull. It’s the least I can do.
We get to the light.
“Thanks for the pull, I really couldn’t have..” and that’s all I get out of my mouth.
“DO YOU KNOW WHAT TAKING A PULL MEANS?” He grunts out at me.
Internally I say, ‘Yes that’s what you’ve been doing this whole time.” But I smile, and before I can reply with something smart, be blurts out,
“GUESS NOT!” and turns back around to glare at the road in front of him.
He was furious, not your characteristically low-stress bike commuter. This man has blood pressure issues.
Part of me felt bad, but most of me was like, You have got to be kidding me. I was RED-LINING. Didn’t he see the blood vessels popping out of my face to keep up? Any more and I would have been exchanging pukes, not pulls.
The red light stop was a little tense. He wanted to punch me, and I did not want a punch in the face. I was on bike shoes that are little too warn down to hold any ground. Plus that would just look bad if two cyclists were duking it out at a stoplight. Isn’t that half the reason we’re riding our bikes to work anyway? Stress relief from being locked up in a car?
Ah well.
So that is the short morning tale of two roadies. I did the same thing to different riders, and I got different reactions. Next time you are out there on your road bike, be kind to the poor mountain biker trying to keep up. Use it as an opportunity to make someone’s ride fun and fast. Share the speed!
Cheers,
-Brandon
