Near miss......

I'll start this post by espousing my new theory on the cost of bike tires:

The distance you can skid a bike tire before it wears all the way through is roughly 10-20% more than the cost of said tire. For example, if you buy a $50 tire, you can expect that it will hold up for somewhere between 55 and 65 feet of a skid before you wear through it.

And now, the reason why I will never ever hesitate to buy an expensive tire......

Last evening, we hosted the weekly club BLT ride from our house. My plan was to do 2 loops and then do a quick 4 mile run, since I rarely can get home in time for both loops. So at 5, I set off for loop #1 with Kirk, Johnny B, Craig and Eric. Just past Death Hill 1, there is a nice descent which, when the street is dry and not full of gravel, I usually like to hammer down in aero. Its always been a fun descent for me, and even though it technically is on a road that is open to cars, we very rarely see any cars. Nevertheless, before I hit the speed, I always check to see if any cars are behind me, and of course I stay well to the right to keep clear of any cars coming up the hill. The descent is a bit curvy, and it is a bit tough to see very far ahead, but I never worry about it because I'm well positioned on the right.

Yesterday, as I came around the last corner at the bottom, I saw a car parked on the other side of the road. About 2 milliseconds later, I saw this car take a hard left directly into my path, presumably attempting to do a U-turn. Things happened pretty quickly thereafter, but it is safe to say that the lady driving didn't bother to look and thus had absolutely no clue that there were 5 cyclists coming down the hill at rapid speed. I was in front, so the guys behind had a few more milliseconds to react. I hit the brakes as hard as I could and prayed that SOMEHOW I could slow down enough before I got to her. I was going 37.9mph at the moment I hit the brakes. Takes a long time to slow up from a speed like that....

Since I was purely reactionary at this point, I went right. In hindsight, this was a very bad move, because she was also going left to right. So she was essentially pinching me off to the right side of the road, which was quickly evaporating. Fortunately, the guys behind had the time to make the better decision and go left, which meant they could clear her back bumper no problem. Me, I just kept seeing her car get closer and closer, faster and faster. I got to maybe within six inches of her right rear quarter panel, then I ran out of road and took a slight detour into the dirt/gravel. Crap. I was sure at this point that I was going down. I have no idea how I managed to avoid hitting her car, and what is even more amazing is that thru all of it, I did not go down. Whoa.

I think it was just about the time that I passed her that she realized what was going on. Hmmmm, maybe the fact that there were cyclists passing her quickly on all sides? Or maybe it was the fact that we were all screaming our heads off at her? Regardless, once we all got stopped, Craig pointed out that my back tire was flat, and it was then that I discovered the gaping hole in my tire. So, apparantly I had locked up my back wheel and skidded. Yet again, amazing that I didn't go down, since I'm betting that I was fish-tailing a bit while skidding.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, Johnny went back and gave the idiot driver a piece of his mind, in a rather loud voice :) Something about "look where you are going, you almost killed that guy, etc" It took me awhile before I could even get my wheel off, because I had so much adrenaline pounding through my veins, I was literally shaking. Craig offered me a patch kit to get me back home (since of course this all happened about as far away from my house as you can get on the loop), but we decided it was too tore up to try and fix. That, and the patch needed to be about the size of Rhode Island, and really, who carries patches that big? :)

So, Kirk got on the cell and called his wife Susan, to come and get me. Meanwhile, Johnny was so impressed with my awesome bike handling skills (aka AMAZING LUCK) in not laying it down, that he wanted to know how far I had skidded. He paced it off at roughly 70 feet. Eric, who was right behind me, had also skidded, and it was interesting to see our skids and where we diverged. He went left (good call), I went right (bad call). I hope to get back out there soon and try and get some pictures of our awesome skid marks.

With Susan on the way, the group headed out to finish up their loop, and I walked up to the road to wait. Susan and I got the bike and my sad-looking wheel loaded up and headed back home. I really can't thank her enough for coming out to rescue me, because that would have been a long-ass walk back home :)

We got back home just as everyone was finishing up their first loops, and as I got out of the car, I said "Whew, that was a good ride, really worked hard the last half...ha ha ha" :) Kirk had let Andy know what happened and that I was alive, and had already gotten my race wheel ready to go for loop 2. Thank goodness that I had that spare wheel! A quick wheel change, and I was ready to go, albeit an easier, slower loop :) The second loop proceeded without incident, although I did take it easy going down the now infamous hill. I checked out my skid mark, and it was sweet!

So, my brush with death is over, and I probably don't really know just how lucky I was, or how close I really came with a nasty accident. Fine. I'm actually not sure I ever want to know :)

And my advice to the rest of my triathlon family is this: don't skimp on tires. More expensive is better. Because you never know when you will need that extra 25 bucks worth of tire!!

P.S. I hope to get some pictures up soon, at the very least a picture of the awesome hole I shredded into my tire