Putting riders down, bumping riders, hitting others with water bottles... all high-strung behavior that perpetuates the same kind of absurdity. You realize that you're part of the problem when you race like that, right?
Break the cycle. Laugh it off, and get your revenge by beating them fairly. It's just amateur racing, after all.
This is all part of the sport, either deal with it or don't do it. I am not encouraging it and I don't practice it, but if I encounter it I deal with it at that moment.
Shit happens, you will never have a perfect race, this is all part of it, mechanicals, bumping, assholes not letting you pass or assholes passing you without warning, crashing, dehydration, pain, etc. If you have ever practiced any other sport competitively you can agree that this behavior takes place in all amateur and professional sports, from Football, Hockey, Baseball, etc. I have many stories of brawls and fights from all the sports I practiced while growing up. I look back at them and I laugh. Good memories & good stories.
Even though some of us say we are not competitive, (and I say that all the time, I just enter the races to race myself) we are human and there is a small competitive seed in all of us, so at one point or another it comes out and in some cases manifests in not the nicest way.
I agree with jbogner that we should not retaliate in the same way, 'cause we are just being part of the problem and not the solution, but I also understand that sometimes you are caught in the "heat of the moment" and you are not thinking straight.
I don't think any of this is personal so you should be able to laugh it off at the end of the race or like jbogner said, just beat that guy fair and square on your bike. Nothing is more satisfying than that.
