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April 10, 2007
Easter Day Bike Ride "Near Miss"
In a valiant attempt to work off some of the calories consumed with our huge Easter Brunch, I went for a nice, easy, two hour "recovery" bike ride in to Chico, and around Bidwell Park. The Park was crawling with people, and I made a point of being very careful, slowing way down anytime I approached people (especially groups with kids or dogs). The ride was pretty uneventful until I came up behind a 20-something guy on a mountain bike. I slowed down (still in aero position, though) as I prepared to pass, waited for him to move to one side of the path or the other (he was going right down the middle). Just as I committed to the left side, and said "on your left", he suddenly slammed on the brakes, and just as quickly he fell over. Only problem was he fell to the left side, which is exactly where my bike was pointed.
Being aero, and one hand holding a GU at that, my ability to do quick evasive manuvers was a little limited. I managed to get all the way to the edge of the pavement, just as his head hit the pavement. Unfortunately, while I cleared him with my wheels, I did not quite clear him with my shoes and pedals. I clipped his head pretty good with the outside of my shoe and the pedal (of course, he had no helmet).
I stopped and ran back to see if he was OK - he was still hooked onto his bike, with the bike partially on top of him, yelling like a stuck pig. I finally got him calmed down, and realized that he wasn't really hurt, but he couldn't get his foot loose - I went to help him, and then I saw what the problem was - his shoelace had gotted wrapped up around the pedal - and that was what caused him to fall.
I carefully unwrapped the shoe lace, and lifted the bike off of him - he was still yelling, about his head hurting. He seemed to be OK, just very vocal about the now throbbing pain where my SIDI shoes whacked him just as he hit the ground.
I kept asking him if he was hurt, could I call him an ambulance - but he kept insisting that he was OK, other than the headache. He was lucid, told me his name, where he lived, and so on - so I helped him move his bike off the road, and left him to figure out how to tie his shoe laces correctly so they would not get wrapped up around the pedals again.
I continued on my bike ride, just a little shooken up - but awfully glad that I had been able to move over enough to clear him with my wheels - otherwise, it was have been a tangled mess of bodies and broken bike parts.
I guess the Easter Bunny was watching over me that day......
Posted by Dennis at April 10, 2007 05:13 AM
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