Guys and Dolls, Cats and Dogs, Roadies and Triathletes

Today three ladies were riding bikes around the Island of Fiesta. We'll call them Julie, Stacy, and Jen. There was a fierce, fierce headwind. It was punishing and seemed to be in their faces 3/4 of the time. The three girls chose to ride side by side. No drafting, that would be like cheating. Remember the teacher saying sternly "eyes on your own paper." Each student felt hot and flushed with embarrassment even if he or she was not cheating.

The ladies, while working at a decent pace dropped a fair amount of watts as they went around the island. The ladies really are not that slow. Although, they sometimes say it. They are slow in comparison to say.....a Vespa. More importantly to them  than the average speed was the multitasking taking place. Training while talking. They probably could have solved the worlds problems if their own didn't seem more important. In usual fashion, they spent the ride getting anything and everything off their chests. It's what allows them to function and thrive in society. They don't always solve their problems but they make peace with a lot of things and after riding they are always in a better place.This is typical ride style for the ladies. Sometimes targeted workouts are done and there is no talking. Today was not one of those days.

Meanwhile, there were three men riding the island. They'll be defined as men, since they dropped the three women. Dammit all anyway. The men were riding all out in an organized formation. Chatting about life would have no place on that pace line. They would never ride side by side.  The average pace on the speedometer would read 2 mph slower, maybe 3. When they passed the girls they were in full on formation, rotating in their pace line. They ride like it's their job. Always. Maybe it is. They ride like they are getting ready for the Tour De France. Maybe they are. No, on second thought, they are not. They'd probably be disgusted to know that the non drafting ladies are discussing things like nutrition and blogs.

There is always a certain amount of embarrassment when they pass. It feels like being scolded. There seems to be a lot of this in cycling. I guess it's the mix of carbon and spandex. It can be a wee bit snotty. Why else would there be a blog spot Bike Snob NYC?  They are on road bikes riding in their perfect formation. The 3 girls are on tri bikes. Scoff....triathletes. Riding with no form, laughing and joking. Seriously, they could give the women on the show "The View" a run for their money.  The men have the upper hand as they are faster. Plus the choreographed rotation makes them look neater and cleaner than the "triathletes". Today  they commented that  we should hang out more to the right. Then they could have an easier time dropping us.

 One of the ladies commented back. I confess. It was me. I probably should have kept my mouth shut as they were probably right. They were smug though and smug pollutes. It's just as bad as smog.

I'm sure they were trying to execute a targeted workout, I respect that. However, it was a craptastic black sky day with howling winds. The craptastic weather gave me a sense of entitlement. Entitlement, was one of our discussions that morning. I felt the island was big enough for all who motivated to use it. After all how many times did we lap the guy wobbling around on his skateboard?

 As sponsored riders, which they were,  I felt they should be proponents of the sport. They should be encouraging of everyone riding on a miserable, windy, rainy, dark morning. I'll confess part of my comment back stemmed from the fact that I felt scolded and we got dropped.  I don't like getting dropped much but more so I don't like being scolded.  I hate being scolded. I made a comment back, sort of like my " Fat Cyclist" jersey implicates.  Too bad, I wasn't wearing that jersey (why is another story ) so my comment was modified slightly. The point was the same "Chill out, I'm just a fat guy trying to get a workout".   There was laughter as I did get one thumbs up so hopefully I wasn't to out of line or offensive. I hope I didn't embarrass my friends. I would have conferred with them to see if they agreed with my smug detector but there wasn't time. Perhaps it was just me and my smug radar is off. Maybe they detected no smug.  I, however, remember them scolding Stacy and I last week....and we were "far to the right. "

After that, we did move into a tighter formation, out of respect for the guys agenda. However, couldn't they once cut us a break and not scold us. After all, we are rehearsing for "The View". In case we loose our day jobs, we'd like to be prepared. Preparation is another one of our favorite topics.

I was thinking this was just a roadie vs triathlete thing. Maybe it's not. It's the difference between guys and gals. We might be exactly the same just a little bit different :) Guys pretend like they are faster than they are and in the Tour De France. Girls pretend like they really don't mind the guy whizz past, but can't stand it when the guys point it out. It's about ego's. We all like to do the dropping.  Nobody like being the dropped , ecspecially by somebody smug.