07-07-07: Lucky Day for Me

The day started out early. I was on my bike before the sun rose. I rode down to the mouth of the canyon to meet a group of riders. This was my group today. I had planned this ride, and I was the leader. I couldn't be late.

The group gathered. Hmmm...not as many as I was expecting. Oh, well. We headed up the canyon. Everybody stayed together as a group until the road got steep. Then we all spread out. Up at the top, where the road is gated and you can go no further, we all gathered together again. We rested and chatted for just a minute before heading back down. The descent was fast. Some of those grades were around 11 percent. Hard going up, and a lot of fun coming back down.

But the fun was short lived. One of the girls who was riding in front of me took a corner too fast. She hit the embankment and went rolling. Dust was flying, she was sliding. This wasn't the first time I've had front row seat to watching this girl wreck. It's always spectacular! I seriously thought she was going to come out of this one with some broken bones. I skidded my brakes, threw my bike against the embankment, and ran over to see if she was okay. She was totally fine! A few tiny scrapes on her calf, and a spot on her ankle where her spinning wheel burned her. I am still surprised she wasn't more seriously hurt.

We did have to do some repairs to the bike, though. The wreck had completely ripped the front tire. Luckily, this girl happens to carry a tire patch. She's the only person I know who carries a tire patch. And I guess it's because she's also the most likely person to need one. We patched the tire, installed a new tube, and we were off again. She's also going to need to have her rear wheel trued. It was looking pretty wobbly the rest of the ride.

Thinking back on it, I'm kind of glad she wrecked in front of me. Well, I'm not glad she wrecked. But the wreck did slow me down around that corner. I think we were all going way too fast for that corner. It really could have been me.

That's why today is my lucky day.

By the time we got back to my place, her front tire was flat again. She was starting to hurt a bit, so Sling loaded her bike into his truck and took her home. I came in the house and got a second helping of breakfast. I was only halfway done with my ride.

Sling got home, and we jumped on the bikes again. It was starting to get hot. The wreck had set us back in our ride about 45 minutes.

We rode down by the lake, and came up some big climbs on the way home. My monitor said that one of the climbs was 17 percent! Luckily that climb is short and is preceded by a fast descent so it doesn't seem so bad.

I kicked Sling's trash on the last hill climb. So much so that when I turned to come home, I couldn't see him anywhere behind me. I thought he must have taken another route. (He hadn't.)

I didn't see Sling again. (Well, not until I got home.)

About two blocks to home, I decide that I've got to make a goal time. I had only ten minutes to make my goal. I wasn't going home. I headed south for my must-add-some-time-to-this ride loop. As I'm standing at a stop light waiting to turn left and head back home, a vehicle pulls up next to me. The guy driving it starts talking to me. At first I wonder if I know the guy, but soon realize it's a stranger, and he's trying to pick up on me. Someone thought they'd get lucky today, too.
"Hey, we should go riding sometime." He says.
"Oh, you think so, huh?" At this point I was still trying to decide if I know the guy.
"Yeah, it'd be fun."
"Uh." I've given up trying to talk to him, and have gone into leave-me-alone mode.
"So, where do you ride, and how far do you go?"
"48 miles so far." Like I'm going to give this creep my routes.
That must have scared him off because that's when he finally noticed the light was green and he could go.

The rest of my ride home was spent looking for the green Isuzu the guy was driving, hoping I didn't see him again. I didn't. Lucky day strikes again.