Trail Rage

As my knee has deteriorated, I’ve moved to bicycling instead of running. The former works. The latter doesn’t. Today, I went out for a ride on the American River Bike Trail.

Shortly after I got on the trail, I approached a woman who was ahead of me, going in the same direction. She was riding an “elliptical” bicycle. It’s basically a stand-up bicycle with paddles like an elliptical, but not the arm part of an elliptical. As I got closer, we got to a small rise. And when I say small, I mean it’s likely no taller than a human being. But, it’s a gradual incline followed by a gradual decline.

So … here’s the deal, and I’m about to say something that some will find offensive and sexist, but I’m gonna say it anyway. I’m not a super strong hill climber on a bicycle. But, particularly with shorter inclines and more gradual inclines, I push my way through it. And I’ve rarely seen a female cyclist on the trail who does the same thing or who can get up those types of inclines stronger than me. Add to that the kind of machine she was on, and it was more or less inevitable that I’d pass her on that short incline. In my experience, the best way to power up inclines is to remain seated and push through it. Standing up is just not as easy until you get to the top of a bigger hill and you need to crank out the last portion of the climb. (Watch the Tour de France. They spend a lot of climbing sitting in their seats and only stand up when it gets really hard.)

I passed her on that short incline. I followed all of the rules of the trail and riding etiquette. I announced that I was about to pass her. “On your left.” I passed her and made sure I was ahead of her with some space before I merged back into our lane. And as we crested the small rise and got to the easier part, I maintained my pace. She, on the other hand, sped up without having to go uphill anymore. Almost immediately she was right behind me and accused me of slowing down as soon as I passed her.

I didn’t respond, just maintained my pace for a couple of minutes. She remained right on my back wheel. I finally did slow down because I wanted to force her to pass me. When she did, she followed none of the rules or etiquette. She didn’t warn me, and she also didn’t move over to the other lane to ensure there was space between us as she passed. Nope. Stayed in our lane, leaving no more than an inch or two between us as she passed, and then tried to move in front of me before she was even past me.

“Jeez, are you trying to push me off the trail?” I said as she did all of that. Her response, “Well, you’re the one that slowed down.”

Once she was past me, I decided to give her space. I had no interest in engaging in whatever macho battle she had in mind, or crossing her if I failed to follow whatever her rules were. I trailed her by a couple of hundred feet for the next few miles until we got to a bridge that crosses the American River.

The bridge is a harder climb than the other little speed bumps on the trail up to that point. But it’s not steep. It’s about 1/10 of a mile and it’s a good gradual climb to the top before going down on the other side. The type of climb that I power through without slowing down much.

At that point, I was likely 30-40 feet behind her and, as with all of the other shorter climbs, she immediately lost speed, so much that I easily passed her before we got to the top.

Her response to me passing her? “You little shit.”

At that point, I slowed way down and moved all the way over to the left side of the bridge and let her pass. Which she did, but an odd thing happened on the downhill slide, she didn’t accelerate, so I caught up to her again. I had no interest in any more interactions with her, so I slowed down as well and gave her space. Again, getting to the point where I was a couple of hundred feet behind her.

I just don’t understand people like her. I imagined catching up to her and suggesting to her that she wasn’t the center of the universe and that maybe she should learn about the rules of the trail before she cops the attitude she did with me. But what would the point be? Anything I might have said to her would have been wrong because the universe is hers to do with as she fits and I was interfering with that.

In all my years of riding the trail, I’ve never had an interaction like this. I’ve never passed somebody, only to be passed by them where the other rider had any issues with what I did. Paces vary, riders have different objectives. Some go fast the whole way, some go slow the whole way. Some vary their speeds and take breaks all the time. And some can’t maintain speed going uphill. Apparently, I was supposed to not pass her when she had that problem? I don’t know. I felt like she believed riders behind her should stay behind her and riders ahead of her should stay ahead of her. Or something. To be honest, I really have no idea what her issue was. None of it made sense.

Today was a good ride spoiled.