I am frequently amazed by the clueslessness of people working in health clubs. It's best to ignore them as much as possible.

I'm also pretty sure that there are very few people in this world who intentionally insult strangers on bike rides, or anywhere else for that matter. If someone really does feel the need to point out that they are better than you, it means that deep down they are horribly insecure and probably full of self-loathing, so you should feel sorry for them.

But despite being a rather cynical person I believe in almost every case people are just trying to be friendly. And in general I think that's better than a world where people ignore each other.