njee20, no offence taken buddy, I was hoping for a simple MTFU, but this is STW after all…

njee is quick and is allowed to be cocky on threads like these 🙂

This very morning in fact I was cruising to work (20 flat miles, road bike) on an easy session. A bloke joined the road behind me at a junction and had a go on his German sit-up commuter special with 32mm winter studs on. Dream on Hans, you’ve got no chance 🙂

If you don’t experience these feeling your not trying hard enough.
Needing to vommit.
feeling like your diaphram is in your throat.
Trouble keeping your bowels closed.
Severe arm pain.
Blurred vision.
Dizziness.
Unable to stand still and upright without support
You can suffer all of these, yet your legs will feel fine.

had most of those on the last climb of the Dunkery Dash on Sunday (Cothelstone hill) – mnnngh – heart in mouth / ears

worst case of being dropped on the commute was being passed by a fella in jeans (but on a nice carbon road bike) who commented that I was “going pretty fast for someone on such a heavy bike” – he skipped on as i blew out my backside

Anyway, the best bet in these situations IMO is to turn around, ride the other way and pretend to be doing intervals!

Perhaps not the best idea on a commute though, your boss may not appreciate why you had to go home again!

It’s a good thing to have that competitive spirit! We’ll definitely end up fitter than the people with the who cares attitude!

Many an easy ride home (and subsequently the next day’s ride) when on my mtb and someone glides past with an imagined air of smugness. Had to take a different route home a fair few times as I’ve knackered myself chasing so use the change of route as an excuse!

Most demoralising is when you think you’ve managed to drop someone and they pull out thanking you for the tow!

I love commuter racing. I have a very small commute of 2 miles into work on my old steel dawes with a pannier bag on the back. I’m normally giving it a pretty good pace and if anyone overtakes me (normally a lycra’d up roadie) I will turn myself inside out to stay with him and overtake 🙂

Love the pain quote.

OP all this is normal – normal to chase down anyone and everyone. Normal to fail, normal to feel bad about failing, normal to feel bad about having no choice but to chase, normal to know you’ll do it next time even though you know you’ll fail. You will at some point have the upper hand and feel like a riding god.

It’s everyone else that doesn’t do/feel it that has the problem.

My worst fail was out on our normal Sunday morning ride in full garb with onewheelgood. I thought I was having a bad day and it was confirmed when a young lad in jeans riding a Halfords special left us – me – for dead. I spent the rest of the ride apologising.

I hate to say it but Rules 5, 6, 10, 11, 20 & 70 certainly apply, mainly Rule 5 though 😀

Once masterd you too will be able to dish out ‘The Pain’ to other commuters 😆

I have been overtaken going uphill by two joggers.

I was on a roadbike, square pedalling 39*25, 1 in 10 gradient, 1/3rd of a mile long, had a 100 yard start and they caught me before the top 🙁

Nightmare.

No offence but thats just rubbish, unless of course there was a head wind of epic proportions and it was at the end of a 160km road ride with copious amounts of climbing 😆

I remember being passed on the way to work by a lady on a ‘sit up and beg’ in jeans and trainers, powering along effortlessly – or so it seemed to me. I politely said ‘good morning’ and watched her rapidly disappear down the lane. Respect! I think you have to pick your commuter racing carefully, else it can beat you up all day… 😉

don’t forget a lot of these sit up and beg bikes are electric

LOL at oldgit, perfectly describing the classic symptoms of an MI !

My most embarrassing one was spotting a small group about 400 yards ahead on a converted railway line and feeling quite proud at slowly reeling them in within a mile. It was only when they moved over to let me pass that I realised that the 2 in the middle of the ‘peleton’ were about 7 & 9 years old out for a ride with their parents! I was forced to ‘sprint’ past them and cut off down a path to the left as the effort to catch and overtake them had left me too knackered to keep ahead 😳

I raced a tractor home today dropped him big styleeeee 🙂

I overtook a couple of roadies on my mtb afewweeks back, i was on fire to be fair, lungs felt good, legs felt great. They were certainly not impressed at all, and they never caught me after on the climb back to the car park! felt a bit twatty but smug at the same time! Never happened since mind 🙁

Was this you?

Meh. You can train and push it as hard as you like, MTFU (god I hate that phrase) as much as you like, but unless you’re Armstrong or Cavendish or Contador or whoever, there will always be someone faster. I wouldn’t let it bother you.

I very rarely meet anyone on the road quicker than me, and I tend not to race.

Worst one though was I heard a guy coming up behind me on my then short commute home (I was in normal clothes, on the commuter hybrid). Quick glance revealed a bloke on some really heavy commuter with dorky looking bicycle clips and helmet coming up rapidly behind me, looking like he was really pedalling hard somehow. I thought ‘who’s this clown think he is?’ At the lights, turned out it was the LBS owner who is one of the quickest blokes I have ever met and he was not breaking a sweat 🙂