I was up at 5:00 AM when the alarm went off and headed out to the garage to get ready to ride. Once the garage door was open the magnitude of the day hit me. It was overcast (I could see a little filtered moonlight), there was no wind, and the temperature was perfect. And it was quiet. I could hear the crickets and that was it. That was awesome. I just had this sense that I was going to turn in a special ride today.
Once I got started and warmed up I started to feel really good. Now that I’m riding the Crotch Rocket (Cannondale R-300), I felt like I was flying. To me it was flying but to a more experienced rider I’m sure it was a crawl. Regardless, I could tell I was making good time. My brother-in-law was not at our meeting spot so I kept on going.
As I neared my turnaround point I decided to go ahead and extend the mileage a little by going to the next median turnaround point. Once I turned around I kept mashing it all the way home.
Nothing too terribly exciting for this ride. I saw one runner and that was it. I figured there would be more for a Friday. There was little traffic as well which was nice.
I wasn’t kidding about a special day for a ride. This was the first day I could really open it up with the Cannondale and I did. Here are today’s numbers: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg. Those are all new records for me (except max) for my morning ride. The perfect weather conditions and road bike made all the difference. Being able to get the avg speed up let me ride about 7 tenths of a mile more but do it 2 minutes faster. Awesome!
Now, after getting back home, getting ready for work, and leaving home with my daughter (whom I take to school every morning), things became interesting. The exit from our neighborhood turns onto a service road that leads to a stop sign. There is a large, divided six-lane, road just off the service road. As I approach the stop sign I hear a very unnatural sound. The kind where the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up. I’m driving so I look over my left shoulder and see a car spinning across three lanes and begin to enter the ditch that seperates the large six-lane road from the service road. He’s coming right at us. The car hits the ditch and throws up a ton of dirt and grass. Luckily (for me, not the driver of the spinning car), there’s a light pole about four feet into the ditch and the car hits it broadside right in the driver’s door. I immediately throw my car into park, put on the hazards, and run over to the wrecked car. The driver (the only passenger) is conscious and asks me to call 911. I call 911 and explain the situation. By the time I get off the phone someone else has stopped and the driver of the wrecked car is out walking around. He seems fine. I have no idea what caused the accident. His was the only car involved and my guess is that he was speeding and lost control of his car.
After leaving the scene I had a chance to think about the whole ordeal and realized how lucky my daughter and I were. There’s no doubt in my mind that if that light pole hadn’t been there that his car would have either slid straight into mine, or, hit the ditch, started to roll, and rolled into my car. Either scenario would have been ugly. Luckily, that light pole was there. Even luckier, he hit the lightpole square in the drivers door. I’m confident, that with his speed, if he had hit the pole on either the front or rear fender that he would have been thrown into a spin and hit me as well.
All I can say is that I’m thankful we made it through ok.
