Riding My Bike

I have been riding my bike to and from work for several years and consequently have gotten in pretty good shape for riding. My ride can go through the canyon on my mountain bike or beside the highway on the bike path on my road bike. I could say lots about how I am not competetive on my bike and the ride is for exercise and cardio fitness or simply to work off tension that might result from work but I'd be lying. I am competetive when I ride. I ride with several friends who also ride frequently and have ridden for years and are in similar shape so we ride fairly fast and we have real biking gear so we look like serious riders. Now, passing someone on a bike is alot like passing someone in a car but more personal - there are those who don't care and those that do. I belong to the latter group. I don't like to be passed and most other serious riders don't like to be passed either. In fact, when someone passes me and/or my riding buddies on the trail, we usually bump up our pace to match regardless of how far we have ridden or how fresh the other guy might be. If the other guy was showing off, we might tail for a while until we see him tiring and then return the favor. Yes, it is doubly-sweet to pass the passer.

Last week, I rode to work and in the last couple of miles before work I caught up to a guy on his bike. He was in pretty good shape but I was interested in passing him and took the opportunity on a fairly long hill. I got past him and still had a little wind left so I tried to pile it on, continue accelerating and leave him behind as I climbed the hill. Obviously, he had dignity but not speed and tried to match my velocity to draft behind me but I was able to pull away towards to top of the hill. When I got to work, I put another notch on my bike seat post to represent the latest victim of my biking prowess.

The day was long and I had a lot to do so I didn't get done with work until almost 8:00 pm. I have a head lamp and a blinky tail light so I am visible and can see the road so I don't worry about riding at night. I pedaled my route and made really good time since I was feeling good about the latest conquest and I was timing a different route to figure out the fastest way home. As I was nearing the last really long hill (~1 mile climb) , I noticed a light behind me on the bike lane but coming on strong. Not wanting to be a notch on someone else's seat post, I got on my A-Game and starting playing pedal stomp. I was going a couple of miles per hour faster than I normally did and figured no one but Lance Armstrong would catch me tonight. As I reached the midway point on the hill, I realized that the other person's light was right behind me. I told Scotty I needed warp drive and started pedaling at a clearly unsustainable rate. Unimpressed, the other biker passed me like I was standing still. When she passed me, I realized two things: 1) My competition was a cheery, teen-aged girl who wasn't breaking a sweat and 2) The motor on her scooter/moped was doing all the work. By this time, my legs were burning from anaerobic excess and I *HAD* to slow down. I barely made it up the rest of the hill and as I neared the top, a couple of old ladies with walkers passed me. I think that they were probably pretty fast - after they passed me, one of them stopped and I think she scratched a notch on her handle bar - Oh well...