Biking Singles, Part Two

I'm not usually shy about giving out my business card, but I wish I'd been a little smarter about it this time.

One of my friends, who I'll call A.OK, is quickly gaining fame as the marriage-hungry member of the group. She teaches ESL, and a couple of months ago, took on a student who needed to pass an English-language exam to get a job with the Banco de España. Turns out said student is a mountain biker, so she passed on a copy of my business card for the guy to look at, and thought that I might be interested in meeting this guy.

I went out with him last night. I had a quick, ninety-minute drink with him that I do not plan on repeating. Let me just say that whatever the opposite is of "spark", that's what happened. While I don't necessarily blame A.OK for what happened, I do wonder why people assume that if one person is a cyclist, that translates into being the friend of every other cyclist on the face of the planet.

Said guy is a mountain biking geek. I don't mountain bike for various reasons, but mostly because I don't like it. I do have lots of mountain biking acquaintances with whom this guy might want to go out. I offered to send him the names and numbers of people like that. But all through the 94 minutes of our encounter last night, I kept feeling like this guy was trying to turn me into a mountain biker. (And mountain bikers, please refrain from sending me all kinds of diatribes about how mountain biking is so much better than cycle touring. To each his/her own.) Yes, it would be nice to have people to go out with. But I'm leaning towards being a roadie. No amount of nagging or probing or offering me to lend me a €4000 Specialized will probably change that.

So this morning I wake up and check my e-mail and find that this guy has sent me no fewer than six different websites dedicated to mountain biking in Andalusia. L., if you're reading this, thank you for the links. But I'm really not interested in mountain biking; otherwise, I would own a mountain bike. And in spite of A.OK's best intentions, I really don't think that I'll be quite as profligate about giving out my business card to "some guy who's interested in cycling" again.

Rant over.