guadzilla

My ride today fits right into the glut of posts about racing Freds and dropping posers.

I was cruising back at the tail end of my 40 miler Zone 2 ride having sweated buckets in the ridiculous humidity here today. Ahead, 4 kids were stopped by the side of the road but on seeing me, they immediately hopped onto their bikes and started speeding up, regularly looking back.

I was actually suffering a bit from the humidity and my HR was a good 15bpm higher than normal for my speed/effort, so I wasnt actually trying to race them. But I was nice and warm, and spinning along quite well, and ended up passing 3 of them. Smiled and said hello to each of them, they all smiled back...

The 4th one upped the ante and was actually going quite fast, looking back every so often so see where I was, and I ended up about 5m behind him for a few min. Then he slowed down and I slowly passed him, also exchanging smiles and hellos as I did. I had opened up a bit of a lead and then I saw him accelerating to try to catch me.

At this point, the shoulder ends for a short stretch and you have to ride on the vehicular lanes with cars whizzing by at anywhere from 40-70mph. I usually pick up the pace a little here, and I confess, I used this as an incentive to dial it up to 400W and drope the hamer. Never saw them again.

I remember thinking about BF while this was playing out. To truly meet posting standards here, I should have been in board shorts, Tshirts and Crocs while riding a steel commuter bike while they should have been dressed like Lance. Sadly, I was wearing the Hammer kit and on a crabon road bike while they were riding in sneakers and steel road bikes so there was no comeuppance to anyone.

So this experience has no moral or message whatsoever.

Still, it was nice for me to see Omani kids on road bikes - first time I have seen them. Pretty much every roadie I have seen so far has been an expat. Hopefully, I'll run into them again as I ride that route 5 days/week.

V.

Erzulis Boat 

Excellent, You made those kid's day by taking the bait and racing. Everyone had fun.

Drag

What he said.

Neat story. Really.

guadzilla

Thanks... I was thinking that lo and behold, we actually managed to have a little throwdown on the road and have fun in the process, without actually any snide assumptions involved. Felt like a violation of BF protocol

gumbii

coasting 

it's always a race. i shout out to kids on bikes to race and if they are with their parents walking along side, it annoys the parents no end!

yesterday i was riding early evening and saw a commuter just before a steep downhill, so i shouted out to her "race you down". just after the drop, i had to slam the brakes on. the buggers had put in some traffic lights for some road works. the commuter arrived and then laughed at me and taunted me. not good to be wearing lycra at that point.

colombo357

You said hello? The hell is wrong with you?

There's only one way to teach these damnable kids a lesson. You ride their wheel while drinking from your bottle. Then you get in your drops, sprint past them, and do a Cavendish style double armed, clenched fist salute.

You'll have more chances this week and the next to redeem yourself.

AMFJ

I had a kid head towards a bike with training wheels while yelling "wait for me", I was afraid he would drop me, so I didn't wait.

bismillah

I love it when you drope the hamer.

aham23

i like this story. maybe this little event will help one of those kids discover a real passion for cycling. later.

midgetmaestro 

A ride or two ago, I had a couple of younger boys on bmx bikes try to race me... *shrugs* it's all fun.

lshaped

Especially on my crabon bike

knobster

Had that happen to me not long ago. I tried a different tactic. Actually it wasn't a tactic, as I wasn't really thinking about it at the time. Saw a group of people in front as I was catching them, they saw me and started speeding up and doing the whole looking back thing. I got fairly close and they really started pushing. Came to my usual rest stop and pulled over. When the looked back again, they saw me standing next to my bike and drinking some water. The look of sheer disappointment was all over their face. I see these guys from time to time so hopefully you do as well.

coasting 

i saw a toddler pushing himself on one of those bikes that don't have pedals and his dad was walking behind him. I shouted at him to get the kid into training. it was uphill and then i took a detour and when i got back to the hill at the top, the kid was there. His dad shouted at me as i was reaching the top of the hill "what's it like to be beaten by a 3 year old?"

guadzilla

I would have thought a Cuddles-style slapfest might be better?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0p0TMQVrkk

Kauzman01

My life's motto is to now "drope the hamer" as often as I can.

guadzilla

You cannot drope the hamer without dialing it up to 400W (let's pay tribute to 2 legends at the same time). I hope you realize that.

KiddSisko

This kid has the right attitude - challenge grown ups to a sprint after they've been struggling up a steep climb and humiliate them.

midgetmaestro 

He climbs better than I do...

lattes

Similar experience yesterday at the start of a 100k ride. Pull up on a guy who is dressed casual (same as me, I wear loose shorts over my cycling shorts and a tightish white t most of the time) he is doing about 28-30km/h so a decent pace so slowed down a bit and paced him (far back enough that I wasn't drafting) after about 20 mins he decides to take off and I just keep my pace knowing I have another 80k+ in front of me.

Catch up to him a bit down the trail and we switched for a bit until I slowed to have a drink, he pulls up and asks where I am going, when I tell him 'Oakville and back" he just laughed and said, 'well I'm not following you that far man'

Although I don't get passed by that many people, when I do it blows my mind that I can be doing 30-35km/h and have people blow by me like I pass joggers. Props to you guys!

lattes

roflmao!

simplify

That was definitely one for the Giro highlight reel.

agarose2000

That's only like 18-21mph. No props deserved for that speed unless it's at least 4% incline.

recon455

Last year I raced a kid on his BMX bike, 10 years old? I stayed with him while he was hammering and spinning out(low geared BMX bike) at like 12mph. I took a "wrong turn" near the finish so that neither of us could say we won. Maybe he will get into cycling, but probably not.