“Why don’t you bikers ride single file…”
“Why don’t you suck me off, lady!”

That lovely quote was uttered at the end of last Saturday’s Performance ride to a motorist who had been delayed for a fair amount of time as we began our warm down on the outskirts of Chapel Hill on Jones Ferry Road.

Sometimes, probably way too often, cyclists are their own worst enemy in the eternal struggle for respect and acceptance on our public roads. I don’t understand why we just can’t be a wee bit more disciplined and maintain a double paceline along Jones Ferry Road to allow some of the traffic we backed up to pass. At this stage the ride is basically over. The final sprint has been decided and at this point we’re just cooling down and shooting the shit. There’s only about 1 mile on Jones Ferry Road from the final sprint to our left turn onto Old Fayetteville Road and then the road fans out with ample room to chat and ride slow out of motorists’ way.

I was shocked, embarrassed, and disgusted not only with the ignorance so publicly displayed by this moron but also with the venomous rage in the guy’s voice. That’s no way to speak anyone with such minimal provocation, much less an elderly woman. Now whenever she sees a cyclist she’ll immediately think “why don’t you suck me off” and want to run us off the road. Great job. The group was pretty big and he was a bit in front of me so I never identified the guilty party. Mostly, I was just numb.

I’m having serious second thoughts about ever doing the Saturday Chapel Hill ride again. Over the years I’ve seen the negative encounters with motorists gradually become more numerous and it’s only a matter time before something serious occurs. It’s usually spooky enough just keeping out of harm’s way of the sketchy riders who take part in the “Saturday Morning World Championships” without motor vehicles in the mix. As much as I hate driving in a car to do a training ride, I think it’s time to try out Raleigh’s legendary Saturday morning Mission Valley ride. I don’t know if the cyclist/motorist dynamic is any better or worse, but I’d like to try some new roads with new training partners. Maybe the grass is always greener, or the roads are always more deserted, on someone else’s training rides…