Thursday, January 3, 2008

on lame drivers.

Leave it to a lame driver to put a damper on what was almost a really great ride today! There was a pretty sizeable group of us out this morning for the 7am, pre-weekend-storms lake ride. The sky looked a bit ominous...but at the same time, the forecasts looked almost OK for making it in time. We decided on freeway-first since it is no fun to be out on the freeway in heavy winds (unless of course they are directly behind you...). Aaron Olson pulled the ENTIRE ride, giving us a nearly 20mph average, which is pretty speedy for an off-season training ride! That guy can sure hammer! (so can his wife, too, I'm in awe...) I'm not sure, but that might have been my quickest Lake ride ever, even counting the ones I did in the middle of race season last year! I still feel slow on the climbs, but today all the speedy people came back down the final climb to collect us all up and we rode in together. That is a small thing that makes a big difference...riding the last 15 miles of a 65 mile ride as a group is just so much more pleasant than by yourself! Thanks, guys!!

The only damper in the whole thing was in montecito, where a driver nearly took us out. Some woman in a very large sedan made a right turn RIGHT in front of our whole group, causing some fast braking to go on. Me, by chance, being near the back of the group, was caught a bit by surprise at this sudden stop, and unfortunately my bike caught in someone else's rear wheel, and took out a bunch of her fancy carbon spokes. Ack! Nobody went down, but what a bummer... we tried to find this driver...but when she saw the cyclists coming, she made an abrupt turn and left the premises. Lovely. I feel really bad about the dead wheel. It was a new Mavic R-sys, too... I guess things happen, but ...

And then, on my drive home (in my quest to keep today under a Century, I had driven to the start of the ride), someone on the freeway changed lanes RIGHT into me, and caused me to do some serious evasive driving to avoid being sideswiped at 70mph. I felt like i was in a crit!

I feel like today just has some bad driving karma going on, and I should just hide inside for the rest of the day. Good thing I have a lot of work to do...

Ciao!

3 comments:

Itinerant Rick said...

Sounds like you handled the 'lame drivers' well. Times like those you long for the stars to align for some justice. The important thing is that no one got injured. Stay safe! You've had enough injuries for at least a decade or two.

chatterbox said...

Yikes! You should definitely hunker down - preferably with a bottle of good red wine, some hot chocolate, truffles and other 'recovery' foods :)

Steve Weixel said...

Poor wheels. Mine sympathize...