On my commute home, I was riding behind man with a tiny child in a little seat attached to his bike. He had been going fairly slow for some distance before we met a corner underpass. Before that, I was just taking it easy, much slower than my normal pace, and I would have passed him, but I waited until we were past the corner and all was clear. At one point, he looked around, so he knew I was there. After clearing the underpass, I started to pass him - and he decided to gun it as I was right beside him like he was refusing to be passed. We were on one of those bike paths that is 'poled' off during non-winter months, and if you go off it, you are in the traffic.

Had it not suddenly become a race, I would have passed with plenty of time for the oncoming in the other direction, but now, it was split-second decision time, I either had to fall back (not knowing if there was someone behind me who would be alarmed by my slowing down) or race ahead of him so not to encounter an oncoming cyclist who was riding at a pretty fast clip. It alarmed me that a man with a very young child on board would ride so fast and be so blatant about not wanting to be passed. You never know what people will do, or what they are thinking.