So on the way home on my bike I stopped to see Dale at his Bikewagon warehouse. He gave me 5 bibs and 2 jerseys for free. They were slightly used, but still in excellent condition. I was so excited. These were quality items. He said he got them at a swap meet for $20 and already gave away half of them. I was very pleased.
Then in Woods Cross on the Legacy Parkway bike trail I was coming up to a bicyclist who was going the same direction. He was on the right side and was slowing down. He was looking a little to the right so I thought he was going to stop and take a moment to rest or something. It was an older guy on a mountain bike. He reminded me of my dad. So he didn't come to a complete stop. As I was about to pass him he immediately turned left and blocked the entire path. It had just rained a few minutes before so the path was still a little wet. I yelled "Excuse me!", but it was too late, I couldn't go in front of him, or behind him. He didn't even look before doing the U-turn. I was able to slow down a bit, but not completely and I hit his rear tire. I was more concerned for my bike than me at the moment.
I don't remember how I landed, or if/how my feet got out of the clips, but I remember going over the top of my handle bars and my bike went with me. I remember landing in a tucked position and rolled without much impact. My shoes were unclipped at the end and I was a little muddy. I hit my shin on the handle bars, but not bad. No blood, no damage to either bike and he was still standing there kind of in shock. "Are you OK?". He felt dumb (as well he should have). I asked him a couple of times if he was OK and looked at his back tire to see if any spokes were bent or anything. I spun my front tire to see if there was any damage to my bike. Nothing. I said, "That could have been alot worse". Well then, See you later, and took off.
I was angry, but he got off easy. I didn't give him any retaliatory words except the tone in my voice when I said "Excuse me" when I was just about to hit him. Hopefully more people realize that the bike path has a line in the middle for a reason. The path should be considered a road. They need to stay on the right side of the road, when not passing, and should do a u-turn after looking behind them.
Distance: 30.6
Time: 1:30
Average Speed:20.4 mph
1 comment:
Sigh, Same kind of stuff used to happen to me at the track (running track) back in the days when I was competing. There I would be doing an interval or a repetition session when some "walker" (why would anyone go for a walk on a track anyway??)would veer in front of me. Usually I could veer around them (which of course would always throw off my rhythm) but Once or twice there was a collision.
Worse still...I had a runner friend once tell me about an incident he witnessed on the Brooklyn bridge. If you have ever been there you will have seen that one side is for pedestrians and runners etc. The other for bikes. On the downhill side of the bridge some bikes go pretty fast. Well---some runner (wearing those damn headphones of course, which is a VERY stupid idea in NYC) was running on the down portion when he suddenly veered (without looking) into the bike lane. Yeah, you guessed it. There was a bike sailing down hill and the crash was not pretty. Blood and all. That could have easily been an ambulance type deal. People got to pay attention for god's sake!
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