mtalinm

photographer came by today and noticed my Boston Bikes map. asked if I do any biking. I told him that I commute to work on two wheels, about 13 miles each way. he was unimpressed and said something to the effect of "well I do some serious distance riding" and went on for 10-15 minutes about how fast he is and how awesome his Cervelo bike is and so on and so on.

from my body type he clearly assumed I was a newbie. I was getting annoyed with him, so I asked how many miles he does per year. "Around five thousand" he said. I then noted that I did 5k myself this past year.

"But mine are really intense riding, centuries, mountain climbs, etc."

good grief. sometimes skinny people need to shut up.

Mr Sinister

Define skinny... I am about 215, and most people think I am kind of skinny ( I wear my weight well, no huge gut). But I know what you mean, hear in Mass. some of the thin people can be asses. Remember the Masses are asses...

green427

Sounds like he wanted you to acknowledge that he is awesome and you are not.

mtalinm

indeed. but I am pretty awesome for my current girth. he seemed pretty shocked that I did as many miles as he did last year

skilsaw

I was in a group of blow-hards who were all trying to one up each other.
When it came time for me to introduce myself, I said "I am David, JPD"

The LLB's, MA's, and Phd's all looked a little puzzled but suitably impressed and I was included in further conversation.

Later, one of the quieter guys asked me what JPD stood for. "Just Plain Dave" was my reply.

What a lot of stuffy Aholes.

CliftonGK1

Tortise and the hare, pal. 5000 miles of intense, long distance just means that you're slacking more days in between.

He's trying to compensate when confronted with the fact that he "only" did as many miles as a rider he deems inferior (by appearance.) He should try and hang with some of my Clydesdale friends fom the Seattle Randonneurs. Let Mr. "Intense Mountain Century" guy see how his ego's doing after a double century and he finds out they're only halfway finished.

mkadam68

Funny stuff. Not specific to just skinnies, though.

On a Sunday club ride, (we do ~25 milers on Sundays), we pulled into our social-respite stop about halfway. Some scraggly looking guy (I would've thought he was homeless) on a bike pulls over next to me & my son. He asks where we came from, I explain. He starts going off on how far he's come, over the mountains, through the woods type stuff. I reply, "You're awesome," and walk away. I didn't see him again.

It's people.

CraigB

Well, I'll agree that skinny person needed to shut up.

nixternal

Add one more to his resume, punch him in his stomach or throat and introduce him to intense breathing, then say, "This is what it feels like to us big fellas to climb mountains!"

Mr. Beanz

I dunno, I think in this case the big guy needs to shut up! (humor)

Well, that's based on what another poster told me, he commutes and I only do sissy la-la trail rides to the beach so I really don't know what riding is.

So if it's true that commuting requires far more skill than I possess, then maybe it's the big guy telling big fish stories here.

jdevarie

no surprises. u r too close to Boston, lots of posers there. I know I live in Quincy lol

he has a chainring up his A$%
lol

StephenH

I was really excited about some of my recent rides and telling a ("skinny") lady at the local club ride about it...she seemed underwhelmed...so next time I kept my accomplishments to myself, and things seemed to go better- so sometimes Clydes need to shut up, too.

Rowan

The thing is... high intensity in training and riding is where the fitness is.

Likely he did spend less time on the bike for the same miles, but was better off for it than you were with your commuting at the same intensity day in, day out.

Sometimes, it's just best to say: "Good for you, you look good for it". And listening might even learn you something.

tiretread

Asshats come in all shapes and sizes.

Ali_Pine

Just let it slide clyde.

indyfabz

So you would have found his braggadociao acceptable if had been fat?

indyfabz

How dare you!

Jim from Boston

mtalinm and I commute similar routes in opposite directions all year round, and we both post to the Northeast Regional Forum thread, “Metro Boston: Good ride today?,” where cyclists of all abilities post on a congenial and mutually supportive thread, virtually a special interest group. I recently posted about that attitude to the thread, and got a couple nice replies.

Furthermore,

I once wrote a rejoinder to a Fred thread, criticizing that diparaging term; my Fred Manifesto.

Ratzinger

Love it. They all probably wondered what you were saying but too embarassed to be the only one not to know what "JPD" stands for.

RunningPirate

At that point, you should have just gone for broke: "Yeah, but I did my miles on a fixed gear full suspension tandem folding recumbent. With no brakes."

Some folks are just like that. All that said, as someone who'll hit 3K this year if he's lucky, good on ya for doing 5K!

jmeissner

Couldn't have phrased it any better than this.

Rhodabike

So what this guy is saying is... his bike is just a toy. Not ridden for any practical purpose like picking up groceries or travelling to a daily destination.

SeptemberGirl

It's one thing to babble on excitedly to another rider, in the same club as you, or who might possibily care, than it is to come up to a total stranger and demean their accomplishments.

So. Rude.

Confession: I live near about 10 mins from the beach, and there are truckloads of skinny, blonde, rich women who don't have to work and own $800 cruisers that they buy exclusively to ride on the boardwalk...convertibles that they only take out on sunny days, you get the picture. Excess. I'm not skinny, blonde, or independently wealthy. So sometimes I just hate on them for all those things. I don't think that makes me a bad person, just human.

Keith99

Your post brings back memories of when I did the Land Rush. San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2 days. I had done the Highland Grand Tour earlier that year and not even a century inbetween that and The Land Rush. I was warned that I would barely be able to get up the second day, let alone ride.

Thing is I was an active Rugby player at the time and 2 day tournaments were still common. It was just like getting up Sunday morning of a Rugby tournament, except that I hadn't been drinking and every single part of my body still worked, some were sore, but all of them worked.

Keith99

Cycling is my number 3 sport. And through good luck more than anything else I have met some pretty good athletes in all 3.

I started as a swimmer. When I was in college at Occidental we placed as high as second nationally. Not any credit to me, I was good enough to pick points at aroung 8th at the confernce meet (This was NAIA, Not even near NCAA division 1). But we had ties to USC and I got an invite to their awards banquet. This was near the peak of swimming at USC and I met several olympians from more than just the US there. I also knew age group US record holders. In Rugby Occidental has put many players on the US national team. We ended up with ties to South Africa and I have toured Australia, New Zealand, England and Wales. Along the way I've met national side players from at least 6 countries and played with and against several. In cycling I have not met as many near the top, but a few. One rider who had competed in the TDF, the defending womens RAAM champion and another woman who was about the 10th best inhte US at the time.

The thing is it has worked out that I've met and chated with those really at teh top from several countries and the most noticable thing is what never happened.

Never, not a single time have I heard a top level athlete say nasty things about those who compete at a lower level or just play, swim or ride for fun. Oh some may be rude to a autograph seeker, but when it comes to others that love their sport the ones I have met have always been supportive.