I took the lane, but it scared people

[Geonz]

I've heard that smiling gamely and saying "I love peanut butter!" can disconcert an otherwise hostile soul. Not sure I could pull that one off.

When I was vacationing and going on my former club's rides (but it's been years; these guys didn't know me), I wrote a note and put it on the windshield of a cyclist who'd given me bad directions and sent me off to "go right and catch up" to the slower group (because he was sure I coudln't even draft off his group). It occurred to me that the guy could escalate and slash my tires... and that I was escalating with the note. I should have simply told him "I'll hang with you guys 'til you catch up to them or I drop off." So I took it off... but I did 'splain to the other folks returning from the ride what had happened...