I'm sure you were in the right, and the guy was being a dick.

But as an experienced roadie/trackie, I sometimes forget that my idea of what constitutes an enormous gap is often very different than other people's.

E.g. sometimes I think I'm leaving plenty of room, but the other person doesn't think so.

So I try to go out of my way to exaggerate and leave tons of room. Unless it's another trackie, then I'll try to squeeze them as hard as possible.

I’ve never encountered anyone riding two abreast unwilling to move to single when someone was passing.

I tend to be pretty passive in passing, something like “hey fellas, I’m gonna come around” and waiting for them to move or for a safe spot.

If someone yelled at me like that, I think I’d probably pass them on the right, between the two, making my own space as if it were the finish of a crit.

I tend to react to dickish behavior wildly aggressively, so probably that’s the wrong reaction.

Everyone who says stop obsessing over it is right, but I’d be obsessing too.

Tons of replies here, many from locals. Thanks to everyone who chimed in. Couple points to address:

The reason it pops back in my mind every so often, and why I was motivated to ask here, was because he was so aggressive in his response that I honestly thought I may have been the asshole. It’s clear to me now that he was just a jerk.

Thanks for the comments suggesting getting a bell. I’m looking to do more mixed surface riding so this will probably help when trying to pass hikers also.

To the locals who suggest waiting for a traffic gap on foothill, I’ll consider that in the future.

No I won’t lookup a Strava flyby and try to doxx someone.

The diagrams are from the open source and excellent http://excalidraw.com