If you're the kind of rider who rides in a club fit jersey, aka not arrow, aka gross, or your bike is made out of some kind of metal, then you might think that the bike path is a place where cyclists and other trail users can ride and exercise without fear of dealing with car traffic. But you would be sorely mistaken. Every time your tires hit a bike path, a competition starts, and that competition is to see who will be crowned the world champion. Of this three mile section of the bike path from the river to Main Street on 347 in the afternoon on 3rd May. Every time you pass a fellow rider, you're letting them know that you're not only faster than them, but you're also a more impressive specimen of a human being as well. And it doesn't matter which kind of rider you pass, it could be a Cat1 racer with a full on arrow bike, or it could be a commuter with a big ass backpack, or a mother who's eight months pregnant, and has her first child being towed behind. A drop is a drop. Those people weren't just trying to enjoy their own ride and pay little to no attention to you as you pass them in a full sprint. They were racing you, and you beat them. What's the prize for this victory you ask? Well now, you think that they think that you're a complete badass. Whether or not they actually think that is irrelevant, of course. This unfortunately goes both ways though. When somebody passes you, they're inserting their dominance over you, and unlike with passing other people, the less experience and more disadvantages this rider has, the more shame they've given you. For example, if somebody passes you and they have the same bike as you, but maybe they have the Durace build instead of the Ulteger build, which is all that you could afford, then maybe you could chalk that up to, well, with that kind of equipment advantage, they're basically cheating. It not feel too bad about it. But if some hipster on a steel gravel bike wearing shorts and a t-shirt passes you, then it's easy to think that maybe this whole biking thing just isn't for you. But it's at this moment that your competitive urge kicks in, and just like they passed you, it's always possible to pass them back and reassert your dominance. Here's a quick guide to doing just that. First things first, make sure that you speed up as they go to pass you. When somebody who's riding faster than you starts to come around you, start riding faster to let them know that that pace that you're riding at is well below what you're actually capable of. Now, one thing to keep in mind here is that you are probably already pretty close to your limit, because let's face it, any ride where you're not riding as hard as you possibly can is a complete waste of time. What this means, though, is that when you ramp up the pace, you're going to start breathing harder than when you have that asthma attack in the 10th grade when you attempted to ask out Matilda. This is a sign of weakness, and you need to do everything in your power to make it look like you're exerting as little effort as possible. Even though your heart rate feels like it's nearing quadruple digits, and it feels like somebody just poured battery acid on your legs, and blood lactate is leaking out of your ears, you need to make it seem like this pace is no big deal It helps if you turn to them and say something like, uh, call me on my easy day, or something like that. Sure, you haven't taken an easy day in the last three years, but they don't need to know that. If it's a female rider, then be sure to give her some unsolicited piece of advice like drop your heels in your pedal stroke for more power, or I heard that arching your back and flexing your glutes is more arrow. This is completely socially acceptable, and will totally not come off as creepy or douchey. I think. Now, this whole getting past situation is one that I've been in many times, which I know is shocking. I mean, just look at my quads, but it can play out in a couple of different ways. If the person is just out there trying to enjoy their own ride and not concerned with how fast they're going, then what's likely to happen is that when you first surge ahead, when you see them about to pass you, you'll get a gap on them. And then they'll slowly start to catch you as you slow down from exhaustion, and they just keep riding at the same pace that they've been riding at this whole time. What happens next is that they pass you for the second time, and you're so gassed that you immediately get dropped. And now you look like you're slow and a tryhard, both of which are correct, but you're trying not to let them know about that embarrassing personality flaw that you have. What I suggest instead is that when you find yourself in this situation, look for the next turn off the bike path and act as if that's your exit. That way, they'll think that had you stayed on the bike path, you would have kept that pace up for hours and utterly demolish them. When in reality, as soon as you turn off the path, you need to keel over in the bushes for 15 minutes to recover from that max effort that you just put in. Just note that this plan can backfire if that person that you were just trying to pass actually does have to exit the bike path at that same spot. This next scenario is less common, but equally crucial. Sometimes, when somebody passes you on the bike path and you sprint ahead to let them know who they're dealing with, they start riding faster to counter your increase in pace. This is a challenger, and under no circumstances can you let this person win. The only way out is to keep increasing your speed until either they back off or until you guys are both in a side by side game of chicken with the other bike path users. Every once in a while on the bike path, a rider will come up from behind, and then instead of passing you, they'll just start drafting you. Now, I do this all the time on the Tuesday night group ride until we get to the stop sign sprint at the end, and then when I win, I try to ignore the fact that I didn't pull once the entire time until the last five seconds of the ride, but when some random guy does it to me on the bike path, it's an intolerable offense. Slowing down, chatting with them, possibly making a new cycling friend, may seem like the reasonable thing to do, but the far more alpha thing to do is to try to drop them. When doing this, the same rules apply that I just spoke about. Being faster than everyone on the bike path when you're actually riding it is one thing, but if you really want to gain legend status, then you're going to need to gain local legend status on Strava, as well as all the KOMs. Now, the good thing about a lot of bike paths is that they're relatively flat, so I recommend positioning yourself about a quarter mile back from the start of a segment, and then wait for somebody who looks like they're really hauling ass. A triathlete with a full arrow kit and tri bike is great for this. Once they pass you, hop on their wheel and use them as a lead out into the segment. This may seem hypocritical because of how I talked about how much I hate wheel suckers literally 30 seconds ago, but I assure you it's not because getting Strava segments trumps all reason and logic. Any action can be justified to get the crown. It's kind of like Lance Armstrong, except instead of winning the Tour de France, it's being the fastest person on the Millsburg intersection bike path mile marker 35.8 segment. It's a highly coveted segment. Trust me. Finally, if you do feel the need to do a recovery ride, which I know you must have completely lost your mind and you should seek therapy immediately, but if you do, then under no circumstances, should you do it on the bike path? Sure, the bike path may seem like the perfect place for a recovery ride because it's flat and you don't have to deal with cars and it's convenient, but random strangers that you don't know and will probably never see again are going to see riding at this pace and just assume that that's how fast you are. And God forbid, you run into one of your riding buddies and they happen to see you crawling along at this pace. You already told them you were doing a recovery ride last weekend when they dropped you, when in reality you were five watts away from passing out on the side of the road. If they see that this is your actual recovery pace, then you'll never live it down. Best to do what I do and never take a recovery day. Or if you do a recovery ride, make sure you do it somewhere where other cyclists are unlikely to be, like an extremely busy section of four lane highway with little to no shoulder to ride on. If you guys were stoked to finally get some good advice on this channel, then be sure to hit the like button, comment any bike path tips that I may have missed, subscribe to the channel and share this video with your bike path riding friends. I'll see you in the next one. Hopefully.