Etiquette

To the young gal in the full spandex, click-in pedals bike costume who passed me the other day:

I know I looked sort of dorky on my commuting bike with the rear basket, wearing baggy shorts and tennis shoes, but you might have handled the transaction with a little more, I don't know, friendliness. First, when you pass someone, say hello, or at least acknowledge the passee's existence. But your taciturnity would have been forgivable if you had been going, on average, faster than me. In fact, when you passed me you must have been laboring mightily, because you immediately slowed down to a speed that was slower than my average speed. (I was out for a little exercise, so I was averaging 18 mph.)

So what should I have done? I don't like to pass, so I slowed down to your speed for a while. Luckily, just as I was getting ready to pass, you went straight where I turned. Problem solved. But if we had continued in the same direction I would have passed you and humiliated you: me, a middle-aged fart in extremely low-tech gear on what looks like an antique jalopy blowing past a decked-out young racer girl on a space-age bike.

And what would I have said? Well, since we missed our chance to say hello when you passed me, I probably would have said, "Sorry."