Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Pace Line Moral

Last night I went on the Tuesday night group ride and took my chances on
riding with the medium speed group. It turned out to be quite the blast
and not as much of a challenge as I thought it would be. We started
with 10 riders but after a couple of miles the lead group was down to 5.
Luckily, I was able to hang on with this lead group and took my fair
share of pulls on the front of the pace line. During the ride everyone
was very good at pointing out road hazards and obstacles and announcing
approaching cars. The last 10 miles of the ride our pace wound up to 25
MPH. At that point people stopped pointing out road hazards because I
think the reaction time necessary to see them just wasn't there. As we
rode along I started noticing that I was running over things in the road
because I just couldn't see them before they were beneath my wheels.
After a couple of these occurrences I realized that some of these
hazards were actually road kill. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkk!!!!
After I made this realization I started riding a bit more carefully
which really paid off when I was able to dodge a flattened skunk.

Moral of the story: If you're in a fast pace line follow someone with
quick reflexes.

5 comments:

Jenny-Jenny said...

Eeeuuwww. I am so glad you missed the skunk.

Jeff said...

I hit a crispy woodchuck once following my wife (she dodged it at the last second) - we were not going 25 mph, though.

Anonymous said...

I am now properly disgusted. Thanks :p

Big Oak said...

Something about running over a dead animal that is just... a bummer. Don't know how else to describe it.

Groover said...

Who cleaned your bike afterwards?