Roadie here, primarily, as well.

A little story. We have this fast local century. It's pretty flat and lots of folks come out to it to do a personal best time. I've done the thing for years.

So the thing starts this year and I'm off the front with about six riders ... all on road bikes. We've got a nice pace going ... about 24 mph. We're just doing a nice, steady paceline. Though none of us know each other, we each know how to do our part to keep the paceline running smooth and steady. This is perfect. We could keep this up all day (well, maybe not at 24 mph the whole day ... there was a bit of tailwind just there).

Apparently, the chase was on behind us and at about 15 miles we were overtaken at a stop sign by a pack of about 30 riders that included about a dozen folks on tri bikes. So as we get on down the road, I'm sitting about eighth in the line when this asswipe on a Tri bike who's down in his aerobars comes up on my left and forces his way into the line in front of me. All the while, he stays on his aerobars. I sat there a minute and then said, "would you mind not riding your aerobars in the middle of the group here? It's very dangerous." (Aside: I was taken out on this ride by an idiot rider about ten years before. I shattered my kneecap in the crash and lost a year of training/racing/riding.) Asswipe says, "if you knew how many miles I put in on these things, you'd shut up." I said, "What could be more irrelevant. You almost crashed into the guy in front of you when you looked around to tell me that." I also informed him that I do time trials and train many, many miles a week on a TT bike and I'd NEVER ride in a pack on my aerobars. He said something else stupid and then I just pulled out of the line and launched a huge freakin' attack. We were on a small rise in the road and I pegged it at 28 mph and just held it as long as I could. When I decided I'd better throttle back, I pulled to the left (before throttling back, of course) so the next rider could pull through. It was so cool. The only riders with me were the exact same group of riders I was with before Mr. Asswipe and his buddies caught us. It was 200 yards back to the rest of them and that gap just grew 'till we never saw any of them again.

THAT's the kind of thing that makes roadies not like tri guys. UNSAFE and STUPID RIDING! As one of the other posters said, some tri guys are very strong. And tri bikes make it easier for even moderately strong tri folks to keep up with strong roadies on road bikes. Unfortunately, tri guys don't always know the etiquette of riding in groups. Some are willing to listen when you try to tell them. Others are asswipes.

Sorry for that unsavory descriptive. It's just what comes to mind each time I think about that guy and what a jerk he was (and how there's at least one on every ride these days).

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all of these pictures were taken off of slowtwitch. seriously, if your bike is up here, you have a problem. fix it. please. you're giving us all a bad name :(

and don't even get me started about why competitive swimmers mock triathletes. two words: swim caps. 'nuff said.

LOL,funny post! But I think most roadies could ride most triathletes into the ground.