Last Sunday I rode in Cascade Bicycling Club's annual "Chilly Hilly" ride. It's nominally the season opener and is held on Bainbridge Island. The entrance fee includes the right to ride the ferry to and fro. My friends and I caught the 7:55am ferry (not the only reason why the ride has "chilly" in its name). That particular ferry time seems to have been pretty popular, as quite a few cyclists crammed themselves and their bikes aboard. This also meant that when the time came to disembark, a large mass of cyclists were all doing so at once.
This, of course, is where the grumpiness began. The first couple of corners exiting the ferry lot were cordoned off to give the cyclists a clear path of travel to get started. The first couple of corners on the roadway were similarly blocked off, with ride staff pointing the correct way to go. With the large mass of riders, and a bike-friendly roadway, the mass of riders began swelling sideways... into the oncoming lane. Frequent calls of "car up!" were mostly ignored, even when the oncoming car was Bainbridge Island police, honking and flashing its lights.
This habit of riding left continued throughout the course. Riders were commonly nowhere near the right shoulder to start, meaning that their riding partner was riding to their left. The result was that two riders (cyclists, mind you) were taking up the full width of the lane. Polite calls of "passing on your left" became more insistent, then angry as people refused to move right. I even had to pass some people on the right because they refused to move over.
I was not the only one passing on the left. Faster-paced riders than I were often seen streaking past, but without any notice or call of "on your left". I suspect that these were seasoned riders (some of them were in team kit, after all), who are used to other riders being well behaved. In light of this mutual understanding, it's natural to not need extraneous chatter, as everyone is on the same page. However, this description does not apply to the majority of people taking part in Chilly Hilly. A little notice would have been nice, fellas.
Then came the hills. Climbing in general is a challenge. Some of the hills on Bainbridge are particularly icky. Couple this with the fact that Seattle is by and large fairly flat (or at least its riders don't make a point of climbing hills), and you've got people laboring slowly up the hill. All well and good if they can hold their line. Nope. Still OK if they honor the "car back" calls and move to the right to let people pass (I'm talking to you, 2940). I can't count the times my momentum on a climb was halted by a sudden left-weave by a slower climber, with my move left blocked by someone passing me there without notice.
I give respect to everybody who completed the ride, but please, be aware of your environment. Foster good relations with the cars we share the road with by moving aside to let them pass. Don't ride into oncoming traffic. Try to compact yourselves right to left so that you don't form a rolling roadblock. If you need to stop, try to move out of the path of other riders. Signal your intent to move one way or the other. It makes life easier for everbody. And it makes me less grumpy.
