I went on a bike ride today. I rode pretty hard. My time is limited and I wanted to kill as many calories as possible. I really just wanted to get in a great workout. I rode from my home to the Silver Comet Trail. Rode about 11 miles up the SCT and then turned around. On the way back I was getting tired, I was riding “tempo” and just grinding away at about 100 rpm. Good pace, tired, not paying attention. On the trail, I space out now and then.
The next 20 seconds of my life – i’m not sure what happened, but I sort of realized all of the sudden that I was about to drill some guy, I couldn’t go around him as there was another guy coming… I realized I could make it so I sort of ‘buzzed’ the guy really close. I didn’t hit him, I wasn’t scared… but apparently I made him angry. He chased me down and started yelling at me. I was quite apologetic. While what I did was “safe” in the sense that I had no problem passing somebody that close, I did invade his (and another riders) “personal space”. He said “that was closer than even bike racers come”. I said “I’ve done a little racing in my day”. We talked about bike racing… got on to track racing. He read my jersey and said something about FixedGearFever – apparently he reads it all the time and asked me how I got a FGF jersey. I told him it was actually my site. He said in an excited manner “Are you Scott from FixedGearFever?” I told him I was and he was in sort of a state of shock. I’ve seen this unnecessary reaction a few times before, but at the next few moments cracked me up.
This guy (named Mike) said “I am sorry!” I asked “for what?” He said “If I had known you knew how to ride so well, I would never have said anything like that! I am sorry for questioning your skills! Wow, I just insulted a real track racer. I am so sorry!”
I told him I was just a regular guy that loves track racing and geek stuff. I felt bad for spacing out and putting other riders in danger. I said that my apology stands and he had NOTHING to apologize for. I’ve been yelled at for smaller stuff. This was all good. We chatted a bit more then he went back to his rest day.
As my illegitmate uncle Fred one put it “Scott is just a fan of track racing, no Scott is a super fan!” I’m not a hero, roll model or above the law.
Overall – a GREAT ride. I burried myself in 2 hours. Good work.