Passing with a "On your Left" Call (Page 4)

If you are in my way and blocking up the whole road and passing area (without having to make me cross the centerline which IS a violation of the rules - as well as you blocking my pass to begin with) I will give you a nice loud "On your left!"

It is not required.  The rules DO state that riders are to be as far to the right of the road as feasible and only pass on the left within the allotted 15 seconds.  On a flat course, I will pull over as reasonably far to the left of the lane and make the pass and may give someone a "thanks" when I pass them for staying over, but most of the time nothing at all.  On hilly ones I will almost always say something coming down hill because I tend to be going fairly quickly.

When I start back in further waves I am going through a ton of people, sometimes twice as fast as them.  It is safer for BOTH of us if I don't yell out as my reaction times are diminished and if the slower person should swerve/get spooked by the rider behind it puts both at a much higher risk.

In general I try to be very courteous and very conscientious of others and will try and give fair warning.  But I'v also had my own fair share of instances where I let them know I was coming and THEN they swerved over to cut me off by being startled and I've lost speed and risked an accident.

In those instances, thank gawd for tons of road racing experience and actually being able to handle a bike ......

I think Jen covered it pretty well above. 

Certainly the vast majority.

I apologize for misinterpreting your post. I wouldn't recommend that you take anything that I say as racing strategy advice. In the past I've been fit enough to race up to an oly distance well pushing an extremely hard effort on the bike. I'm nowhere near that fit now in terms of stand-alone or multisport racing but I just wanted to test out what I could do in this one race. FWIW, it was a complete disaster...

I'm a relatively weak swimmer, so in yesterday's race I was in the last swim wave.  By contrast, I'm pretty quick on the bike, so being in the last wave I had LOTS of people to pass once I (finally) got on the road.  I yell out "I'm coming up on your left" to every person that is remotely close to where I want to go.

As I came up on one guy, I called out.  I was doing about 24 mph, and he was doing maybe 17?  As I went past, he yelled "DUDE!  They have SPEED LIMITS in this town!  You're gonna get pulled over!"  I almost wrecked I was laughing so hard!

I got to see him again later though, as he passed me on the run.  I can't run for diddly.

If the guy is in my age group I yell, "Don't let me pass you! Don't let me pass you!" and as I pass him I let out an evil laugh, MUWAHAHAHA.

If it's a female I say, "Pace booty on my right!"

This user's post has been ignored.

this annoyed the HELL outta me this weekend at irongirl. By mile 10 of yelling and people flat out not moving over to the right when I'm flying down a hill at 30+mph pissed me off royally (only othe option was to cross the double line- SCARY).

I love beginners, we've all been there. But i knew the rules.

Even the race director (people) said this, but no one moved. It wasn't the hills that were going to kill me, it would have been a crash because someone didn't move.

keep yellin.

I'll almost always say "on your left" during training rides. During a race, I almost never do so unless the rider(s) I'm trying to pass are riding too far left.

Well, at the end of the day if an athlete swerves left just as you are passing and takes you out, dollars to donuts they will blame you for not letting them know you're there. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Of course that doesn't apply to some of you who clearly have the power of prescience! LOL!

I'm so slow on the swim relative to bike that if I had to shout "on your left" during a race, I would literally be shouting it continuously for the entire sprint/olympic leg. For real.

In training, I try and say "on your left", but also honestly, it doesn't do much use most of the time since this usually occurs on the Pac Coast Highway with cars buzzing by at 50+, and the people I'm passing on that route I'm usually doing at least 50% more speed than for a fast pass. 

I'm in the same boat, but I almost always say it.  I don't find that it normally requires shouting.  I've had to say it forcefully only once -- to some guy who seemed to think that the way to avoid being passed was to block.  But mostly I try to say it nicely, and just loud enough to be heard.  I've never noticed people being annoyed, but then again I don't pay much attention to them as I'm passing; I'm looking where I'm going, not at the person next to me.

"Being a really good swimmer and crappy biker, I'd be pulling my hair out if EVERY person who passed me said "on your left". I'd go batty by the time the race was over."

I have the opposite problem. I'm horrible at swimming (BOP) and near the top 1/3 for biking so Last year I found myself passing a huge number of racers. One was the Chicago Tri being one of the largest if not largest in the country.

It was confusing to me as a first season racer how I was supposed to handle the "On the left" situation passing SO many people. I just had to make judgment calls when to do it... Even then I was probably hammering it hard (mistake - I know!) and could only manage "Left!" half the time.

Still confused on how to handle the situation. I don't want to be a rude rider, but saying left all day long seems unreasonable.

Edited by IdealMuse 2009-06-29 7:15 PM

All multi-use trails are not the same.

Today I rode 59 miles on our bike path and I passed exactly 23 other people riding bikes. (I read your post right before I left and yep, I counted them.)

I'm sure you've probably ridden up here plenty but when you live here you know exactly how the traffic patterns are based on day/time. I'm able to ride very aggressively on the bike path and again, I haven't hit one person or caused a single wreck (other than just me) in 15 years.

When you come up here to ride the Copper Triangle, it won't be that way because it's July 4th weekend and so it will probably be the most crowded the bike path will be all summer long. But (as I'm sure you know) it will still be great fun and you (and maybe me) will be on the bike path early before the tourists are out in full force.

There's nothing wrong with being a beginner and not having skills. But after 15 races... Not being able to hold a line while getting a drink is Cycling 101.

IMO, it would be exactly like me saying,

"Hey let's go climbing. I don't really know how to tie a Figure 8 and when I do get it right the rope's all twisted. Sometimes I forget to double-back my harness straps, and of course I step on the rope sometimes too. I'm just clumsy I guess... When do you want to go?"

If you are aware that you can't do very basic cycling (or climbing) fundamentals, rather than blaming it on "poor balance" you may just want to learn the skill for everyone's sake.

I probably would too if I were wearing a sponsor's kit but then again maybe you're just extraordinarily thoughtful and polite. I can't remember a single FOP cyclist announcing a pass to me ever.

Well, like I said, we have some VERY crowded courses here in Phoenix. Bigger events with more road require less diligence, but I still like to be situationaly aware as much as possible. It's not etiquette, it's just common sense. I'm not trying to make friends, I'm trying to get around people without incident. I don't assume people know what they are doing. If the best argument you can put forward is that "people should now better", well, good luck with that. The concept of assuming other people will do certain things properly..... I'll call on your left, thanks.

Edited by bryancd 2009-06-29 9:24 PM

Me neither.   Los Angeles races so they're pretty crowded.   

 down here it's "on your right" 
Depends on the circumstances, never had to do it in a race (vast experience of 3!) as everyone has been sensible and the roads have been pretty wide, maybe it's different up the front.

On a cycle path or road, if it's someone on a road bike, with cleats and looks pretty experienced, I reckon they'd know what "bike right" means and would hold their line.  If it's someone out for a leisurely (sp?) dawdle, I don't think they'd understand and  would, more than likely, drift over.  Then, if they don't respond to my bell, I shout "bike", sounding like a Newhaven Fishwife, and that alerts them.  I can't stand cyclists that are in stealth mode and suddenly just appear scaring the bejesus out of me.

This user's post has been ignored.

This user's post has been ignored.

Edited by PennState 2009-06-30 7:13 AM

This user's post has been ignored.

Well if you want to train for that day, on your next ride just do about 5,000 feet of hill repeats while breathing through a straw.