Upon realizing the same [censored] has just drafted me across the I-90
bridge for the third time in recent memory, I decided to mention to
him that it was rude to draft without asking. As we reached the end
of the bridge he pulled up next to me and asked how I was doing.
OF = Other Fellow
Me: Fine. Just on the way home from work.
OF: Ah commuting.
Me: Yes. Err, you know it's pretty rude to draft without asking.
- OF gets offended look, starts to pull away.
OF: *something semi-intelligible like "well why were you racing me"
I decide maybe I was a bit harsh and decide to catch him and try and
talk to him.
Me: I don't mean to come off as a [censored], but it's not safe for you to
draft me if I don't you're back there.
OF: Well, you know it's pretty standard to draft other people.
Me: Not really, and it's rude to do it without asking. Especially
if I don't know you're back there.
OF: Well you should keep aware of what's going on, pay attention. [1]
It just goes to show your in-experience cycling.
- At this point I burst out laughing. I'm not uber-cyclist, but I
only started seeing him cycling about May this year. I didn't see
him out in December and January.
OF: If you didn't want me to draft you, why did you pass me back there? [2]
Me: Just because I'm not out in pacelines, and I'm not a *club* cyclist,
doesn't mean I'm inexperienced. It means I don't do the same kind
of cycling you do.
OF: (can't remember) Something about me being (snobby ?) about club
cyclists I guess.
Me: You could have passed me any time you wanted, I kept to the right just
fine.
OF: *something about him being faster than me.*
OF: You should do some training, pick up the pace!
- At this point the light I was waiting on changed, and I didn't see
any point in hanging around and discussing it further.
If he's so much faster than me, why does he keep drafting me?
God he managed to [censored] me off.
[1] I actually was aware that he was back there obviously, but sometimes
the idiots sneak up on me. As for 'paying attention', I wasn't the
one with the iPod earbuds stuck in my ear.
[2] I'm not positive what he means here, I entered the bridge from the
trail-bit that goes past the ball-field, he entered from the road.
I saw him coming and decided not to wait for him to go first, but I
hardly think I cut him off or anything.
--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Thus spake the master programmer:
"A well-written program is its own heaven; a poorly-written program
is its own hell."
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"