Touring season is approaching and I took the steel bike for a longish ride to the town of Wareham Ma. The Novara has been in my stable since 2008 when I did my first tour of the Erie Canal.
Wareham has been my go to ride for medium miles for years. There are two hills to climb to get to the center of town on the back road route. As I was climbing the first hill, a 30 something rider passed me and the only thing she did was a psheh sound when she looked at me and my bike. An old guy, no helmet, riding steel. psheh.
Now if you don’t know, touring gearing is made for climbing. It was no problem for me, even without a helmet to catch up and stay a few yards behind her. She looked back a couple of times to check the traffic on this moderately busy road. I’m sure she spotted me, because she stood up to finish this first hill. No problemo for a steel touring bike. After the second hill, she signaled that she was turning left. I passed her on the right and said, “you ride a good pace”, and contained myself from saying “for a girl with no manners”. She did get me to push myself for a while. That was good. But…. I can’t help wondering if that noise was just that. An innocent noise. However, that would not make a good story. So psheh.
Lunch was at the spot where I always take people when I lead groups on this ride. Cumberland Farms sandwich and coffee. mmmmm
Riding back home was a head down steady spin with not much to write about. Saying that, I’ll just share some photos from the ride.
A Midnight Rider 
So the other rider gave you a reason to push for a bit *and* to demonstrate that “steel is real.” Sounds like a win-win to me. 😛
LikeLiked by 2 people
Getting passed happens so often I usually don’t give it any thought. But the I’m better than you noise she made got to me for a bit. If that’s what it was. I’m having second thoughts that it may have been innocent. But it was fun to write about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person