Wanna be's

A few weeks back I passed a couple of shaved-leg racer-wanna-be's at the beginning (meaning before I was even warmed up) of my commute. Now I know that racers aren't always going to blow my doors off, they're likely working their training plan and I'm not relevant. What I do know is that they are easy to spot at any speed because they are smooth and steady. These guys were neither.

They pulled onto the road about a quarter mile ahead of me and I rolled up onto the second one's wheel for a moment waiting for traffic to clear enough to pass them. When I did the second one made some snotty comment about stealing their draft.

I like encountering racers on my commute. I observe them and sometimes learn something. They are nearly always examples of road courtesy; racers know that they only get down the road by protecting their riding mates and receiving protection in return.

After passing them, the first one sort of freaked out and jumped up on his pedals and tore out down the road like he had big money on a sprint finish. It wasn't a bad effort but he looked pretty goofy when he ended up missing the turn onto the bridge. He didn't touch the floor, he just was going too fast for the U turn and rolled past it as his buddy started shouting at him to turn.

I wasn't racing them, I wasn't even warmed up but this hairy legged, oversized backpack carrying commuter passing them without even breaking a sweat must have just been too much. I had to laugh since if I had been warmed up and interested I could have given Mr. stomp-on-the-pedals a run for his money without a problem even with my loaded pack.

I just turned and proceeded over the bridge but I glanced over my shoulder several times just to watch them huffing along trying to catch me. The bridge is a little over a mile long and when I made the turn at the end I never saw them again. Now I'm not complaining about them, I just find it a bit entertaining that they made it so clear that it wasn't OK for me to pass them but then couldn't catch up to me when I wasn't even trying to out run them.

Wanna be's; gotta love 'em. At least they are out there riding...