Tuesday Buddy Ride: Speed and Assholes

my fastest Buddy Ride yet--Roger and I headed out, and were joined by Mr. Garlic, and we flew out to Clark's Gap and back (Mr. Garlic remarked that it was his fastest ride yet as well).

Along the way, however, we were passed by a very terse pair, a man and a woman. At first, I thought it was something we had done...like stay on his/her wheel and draft when they didn't want us to (if that was so, they could've said something). Or maybe Roger and I sounded too "gung ho" about trying to keep up with them? Or maybe she thought we were hitting on her? Whatever it was, when she passed me to join up with him, instead of a courteous "on your left" it was a terse "excuse me". Bewildered, I let them pass and they were gone--rude though they might be, they were certainly very fast.
Later, at dinner, Jane reported that they'd been passed by the same people and they had been very rude to Jane's group as well--Jane had been signaling a left-turn, and even looked back to check that it was safe to turn around, when the rude roadies whizzed by, yelling at Jane to get off the trail! What had she done to deserve that? From what she said, she had done everything right--signal, check, all that.

So it wasn't just Roger and Mr. Garlic and me. I still have this notion that most cyclists are nice people--there was one guy that we stopped for because his CO2 inflator wasn't working, so we let him use one of our pumps, and he was pretty nice. He was riding a beautiful Felt Time Trial bike, with the wing-bars and cranked-forward rider position--the fork and the steer-tube was even designed so that while it still pivotted in the head-tube, it was still much further forward than a regular fork. Strangely, though, he disappeared--he was heading to Clark's Gap, just as we were, when his front tire blew. After he'd gotten it fixed, he was nowhere to be seen--maybe he thought that, since he had no way of repairing a flat anymore (out of tubes? no CO2?) that he'd better not press his luck and head home--perhaps wisely so.

But he was nice and gracious. Unlike those other two people.

Oh well. Some Bad Apples indeed...

Statistics:
Bike: Trek 5200
Distance: 28.93mi
Saddle Time: 1h32m11s
Actual Time: 1h45m
Start Time: 6:10PM
End Time: 7:55PM
Start Outside Temp: Warm
End Outside Temp: Cool
Max Speed: 29.5mph
Avg Speed (saddle): 18.8mph
Avg Speed (actual): 16.5mph

We went to The Village Grill again today. The experience wasn't as good as last time--the waiter couldn't replace my normal side-order with a side-salad, and the food took a really long time to come out for just 8 people. Of course, it is a bar (or at least has a bar), so I should really just expect that bar-food will come out slow...at least, that was my experience with Attitudes in Blacksburg...