People forget that most bicyclists are drivers too. As a driver I have come across cyclists like the ones you mentioned. I am always sorely tempted...
BTW, I rode the Seattle to Portland every year between 1991 and 2006. You guys make it possible.
I always had a lot of respect for people who could do those bike tours. The area where I lived (around Lynchburg) was hilly and some of those tours went into some serious climbs and descents. Me, I was just the big fat dude with a radio and a pickup truck who picked up the ones that couldn’t make it. :)
It wasn’t always safe, either. One guy died of a heart attack on one of the rides (”dead before he hit the ground,” was what I heard later from one of the EMTs). Another missed a downhill curve at 40 mph, went head-on into a guardrail, tore a huge gash in his midsection going *over* said guardrail, went about 10’ down an embankment, landed on a tree stump butt-first and cracked his pelvis. But at least the tree stump kept him from rolling at least another hundred feet down a 70-degree slope. Amazingly enough, I never remember hearing of a car/bike crash, though I do remember at least one cyclist running afoul of somebody’s hound dawg.
Some of those guys rode those Saturday charity rides like it was the Tour de France.
}:-)4