Within Inches

Today was a really nice day and I had the day off so I went for a training ride. I rode for about two hours at a pretty brisk (for me) pace. I rode last week and felt pretty sluggish the whole time, but I think my body is adapting because today I felt great (even after a day of snowboarding on crappy snow). It's a great feeling to know that your training is working.

My route had taken me into Loveland and I was just starting north towards home when I almost got hit by a car. Or, rather, I almost hit a car. The street I was riding on was fairly major, so cars on a cross-streets had stop signs. This driver of one particular car looked right (the direction I was coming in), apparently decided that there was no traffic, then looked left, again deciding that the road was clear, and started across the road. I saw him start to pull out but I didn't think much of it due to the fact the people will frequently pull halfway across a street and wait for a cyclist to pass before they finish crossing (as if it would be such a hassle to wait that extra 3 seconds on the other side of the road...grrr). It soon became obvious that this was not his intention I slammed on the brakes. As I locked up my rear wheel, it fishtailed out to the left and I eventually stopped (still on the bike) inches from the car, facing the same direction it was heading. To the guy's credit, he didn't take off and he asked me if I was okay. (You better believe I was ready to chase him to the next stop sign 100 yards way and pitch a water bottle through his window if he tried to take off.) I'm willing to accept that we all make mistakes, and I'm just glad that I stayed upright.

I was just reading a cycling book last night in which the author was talking about doing drills to prepare yourself for adverse situations, the theory being that hopefully when you're put in a real-life situation your first instinct will be the correct one. I think that's what saved my ass here. I've practiced a similar maneuver on my mountain bike in loose gravel to see if I could get my bike to fishtail around a corner. The coolest part about the whole thing (besides not getting injured) is that I stayed clipped in to my pedals the whole time, and when I stopped I next to his car I was just standing there balanced on my bike.

The event completely wasn't without damage though. When I was cleaning my bike after the ride I noticed that I wore through the rubber on the tire when I slammed on the brakes.

I was just noticing before I left that these tires were getting pretty worn down and this was the straw the broke the camel's back. I have two new tires in the basement (which I'll save for the nicer weather) and a cheap one that should be arriving this week sometime.