Last month, a Kamas, UT man tried to run down a group of cyclists riding along Mirror Lake Highway. Normally I'd be all, "Stupid redneck!" and spewing some other anti-Utah insults at the driver on here. However, if you read the article closely, you'll see one of the riders who was nearly run over was riding side-by-side with another.

Now, I'm not going to side with the redneck driver — what he did was pretty rash and dangerous — but at the same time, I'm not going to feel too much sympathy for the guy who was hit because he was NOT riding smart. You don't ride double on a busy road. EVER. I've ranted over this topic many times, because it seems to be an epidemic during group rides. There are two sides of the "Share the Road" equation when it comes to bikes and cars. Both must show courtesy towards one another for it to work.

Bill Dark, a Park City resident, responded in an editorial:

"I have to admit that we road cyclists have brought this problem on ourselves. We expect to have the same rights as cars on the highway, but we blatantly disregard the laws that we should abide by… If we were in a car we would never do this, but we feel somehow entitled to on a bike. This is wrong. How can we expect respect from drivers when we show them that we believe we are somehow above the law[?]"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Bill says the road had too much traffic for two riders abreast. Apparently it's legal to ride this way (which is beyond me, because I'm relatively sure there's something written down saying bikers should probably stick to the right of the white line), but it's just downright rude to do so. Motorists get pissed at bikers for taking up too much space, and to be honest, I don't blame them. Again, not saying it's okay to run over people, but I do see where they're coming from.

"We will not change the attitudes of people like Barto and Delray Hatch, an Oakley city councilman who advocated in a public meeting that bicyclists should be run over. But we can change the opinions of many others. It starts with us."

AMEN!

I will be very, very glad when Sunday is over, because apparently this is just not my week.

Went out for a ride today… route included going up through N.Arlington, across Chain Bridge, down the C&O to the Capital Crescent Trail, then up MacArthur Blvd, mess around in the suburban street of Glen Echo, then back down Sangamore to MacArthur to Reservoir into Georgetown, then back to Arlington.

The first 3/4 of the ride was uneventful, except for me getting a little off-track and missing the [well hidden] path off the Crescent Trail. I have to say, the CCT is pretty nice, but there really aren't any good access points beyond the Arizona Ave. Trestle. Basically, in order to get to it, you have to bounce around on the C&O trail (which is perfectly fine… if you're riding on a mountain bike) for about two miles, then swing around and backtrack over the canal and onward. Essentially, beyond that, the next [obvious] exit point is about 5 miles up. Silly me, I managed to make my way all the way up to Mass Ave before I realized the only way for me to get to MacArthur was go back about 3 miles to Potomac Ave. I did NOT get lost. Really.

At that point (turning around), I fell off my bike going uphill… yeah. In short, I was going up a really short, steep path to get back to the CCT from Mass Ave, the ground was wet, and I put too much force on the pedals — enough so that the front wheel lifted off the ground and down I went. No damage, but I definitely felt like an idiot.

I've never been in this area of MD on a bike, and it was really scenic and pretty. MacArthur Blvd sort of has a bike lane. From what I've read, the road itself has long been a battleground for shared space. The bike path/lane is located along the south/west side of the road, which is a little disconcerting as it means biking against traffic… not to mention the lack of a guardrail means no barrier between you and cars whizzing by at 50 mph. Either way, I felt significantly safer riding on that path than on the actual road itself, which had no space or shoulder to accommodate bicycles along the other side.

Anyway, the last 1/4 was a little bit nerve wracking. When I got back to MacArthur Blvd and started heading toward Georgetown, my chain broke. AGAIN. This time I'm not going to blame the bike shop for putting it on incorrectly, but rather me somehow running over one end of it and making the Connex link break apart. Essentially, when I went to shift into my outer ring, it overshifted, so the chain actually came off the chainring to the outside and looped around my crankarm. The chain was drooping so much that it actually started dragging on the ground and my rear tire ran over it, putting enough force on the link that it came apart. (At least that's what I think happened.)

Either way, this time around I was prepared and had an extra Connex link with me, so I pulled over and put my chain back together. I walked back along the road and actually found the two pieces of the link (fully intact - that deserves a for saving $9 and not having to buy another one), which is good.

In total, it was a 27 mile trip… I must have done about 5 extra miles on the CCT trying to find my way to MacArthur, hence the difference on the map below:

For those who missed the original news…

Sun Journal
WCAX
Maine Today

Paul's obituary

Nice remembrance from the "Citizen of Laconia" newspaper

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before on this blog, but my dear old dad followed in my footsteps/tire tracks and rode his bike across the country this summer. I did this trip eight years ago when I was 17, and to say the least, it was the experience of a lifetime. The couple that led the group of kids have been continuing the cross country trend every two years or so, and this summer, Dad decided to take advantage of his spare time in retirement and hit the road.

Today was the group's last day of biking — the last point being the coast of Maine and dipping their tires in the Atlantic. One of the riders has family in New Hampshire, and the plan was for several of them to join him on riding the last leg today.

Unfortunately, Jon's son (known as Paul) was struck and killed by a logging truck earlier this morning.

[Side note: the news report is somewhat inaccurate. 1) Paul apparently didn't fall off prior to getting hit, e.g. was NOT lying in the middle of the road, according to witnesses at the scene, and 2) they were riding from Washington, not California.]

Dad told me Paul was riding along the road when the shoulder abruptly ended. The road itself curved to the left on a slight uphill, and I guess there just wasn't enough room for the two of them. He was killed instantly and didn't suffer any pain.

It's times like these that make me realize how lucky I've been. The only time that my bike has landed me in the hospital was my own fault and didn't include a car; although Dad has been unfortunate enough to actually hit TWO cars (not the other way around — he ran into them. One was parked, and I think the other one was going so slowly that he ran up the trunk or something.) But at the same time, it really hits home. Bicycling is a dangerous sport. When it comes to sharing the road, we (as much as many of us hate to admit it) MUST respect cars, even in the cases when they're supposed to yield to us. In any moving car versus bike accident, the car will win. Always.

As much as I rant about dumb people who don't respect traffic laws and ride two/three abreast, I do it because of situations like this. It pisses me off not only because it's rude to the few drivers that do give us a wide berth when passing, but it tends to aggravate the anti-biker ones and make them despise cyclists even more, to the point of driving dangerously around us.

Paul, who wasn't doing anything wrong or illegal, lost his life because of a careless logging truck driver, who was most likely driving too fast for the road. That's the sad reality — the ones who do obey the law and ride where they're supposed to end up hurt or dead.

Another recent bike accident actually occurred here in D.C. A girl was commuting to work and was hit by a garbage truck. She was riding IN a bike lane, and the truck turned in front of her and she was trapped underneath. Again, she was doing nothing wrong, obeying the law, etc., and lost.

That being said… to anyone who reads this and bikes: be careful. Please.

Well, I did the Reston Bike Club ride yesterday, and I'm still alive. I didn't wuss out and do the 30 miler, but I did forgo the metric and just did 54 miles instead. Overall it was nice — the scenery wasn't up to par with the MS ride, but there were some sections that were just flat out nice. Dry Mill Road, which runs parallel to the W&OD, was a particularly nice, low traffic stretch where I could just clock along effortlessly at 20 mph and take in the bucolic surroundings.

I'm not sure if starting at 8 AM helped because there wasn't much rider congestion. I originally expected somewhat of a traffic jam on the W&OD since weekends are the most crowded, but I was pleasantly surprised not to be stuck behind anyone… mainly because I was that person that other bikers were stuck behind. Holy manoli. Talk about some seriously overzealous riders. I don't consider myself to be that slow — mainly because I've finally talked myself down from being the stupidly competitive 17-year-old that used to chase down triathletes — but really, did everyone else find it necessary to form a paceline on a rail trail? If you want to do a century for time, don't do it on one that uses the W&OD, only because you're going to have to stop about nineteen times at road crossings and also because it's just obnoxious to be that guy who runs down 6-year-olds on training wheels.

So, in a nutshell — yes, I'm glad I went, but not having to pay the registration fee and getting a free lunch and cool tee shirt made it all the better.