cycling
16. Mai, 19:55 Uhr
Hey guys. After a month of riding 20+ miles a day and turning cycling into my life, I just got too comfortable on my normal route. Because I’ve been riding the same 2.5 mile loop 8 or more times every day, I’ve gotten to know the route very intimately. I know where everyone’s car is parked at what time of the day, I recognize the faces of the people on their afternoon and evening walks, who the dog park regulars are, the color of the joggers’ shoes. Every bump in the road, every bit of debris that I’ve been too lazy to move myself, and every pothole (this is important to the story).
The other day, about 8 miles into what was going to be a 20 mile “ride as hard as I can and get my average speed as high as possible” ride, I hit a car. A *parked* car. This, of course, is extremely embarrassing, but here’s what happened:
My loop starts and ends with about a half mile long descent. I don’t know the gradient, but it feels steep and I get going pretty quick (25-30+ mph). The descent ends with a right turn into a large stretch of flat ground. So I fly down the hill, no cars coming, all clear, full speed ahead through the right turn. Instinctually, I immediately tuck into an aero position and look down at the ground to focus on laying down power to get up to my flat ground speed, and the first time I looked up and forward there was a car parked about 3 feet in front of me. With no time to react, I crashed, barely managing to get my front wheel out of the way of the car so the impact was entirely on my right side. The crash sent me into a full front flip over the car, and I landed about 5 or 6 feet in front of the car, with most of the impact being absorbed by my helmet and shoulder. This was a very serious crash that happened at high speeds, and it would have killed me if I wasn’t wearing my helmet (thank you specialized, for saving my life). The impact of the crash put 2 large kinks in the aluminum frame of my bike, one on the top tube, and one on the down tube, totaling the bike.
This accident was entirely avoidable. It happened because of my confidence in my memory of the route. I had never seen a car parked where the one I struck was. If I had looked up and saw it I had more than enough space to just bank right and move out of the way. I didn’t hit the car because I was trying to avoid hitting a moving vehicle or another person, I hit the car because I got too cocky and didn’t look where I was going.
Here are my key takeaways:
1. Always wear a helmet, no matter how invincible you think you are. Accidents can happen, no matter your skill level.
2. Put some variety into your daily rides so you don’t get too confident. I crashed because I was too confident that my memory would serve me well.
3. Don’t get cocky. This experience was humbling, and it really made me realize that no matter how good at riding and controlling my bike, shit can still happen. Stay vigilant, and always pay attention.
4. Cycling is a lot more dangerous than I initially thought, and I now respect it much more. Up until relatively recently, the only riding I’ve done has been low speed leisure riding. Now, at the speeds I ride, the sport it a lot more dangerous than it used to be. New cyclist should keep that in mind when they start upping their speeds. The faster you go, the more it’s gonna hurt when (not if) you crash, so treat cycling a lot more like riding a motorcycle or car at slow speeds rather than riding a bicycle at high speeds. I feel like looking at it that way will put better perspective and a healthier respect to the inherent danger of the activity.
Stay safe out there. Support your local shop, and always ALWAYS wear your helmet.
TL;DR: I totaled my bike and it almost killed me, but it taught me a lot about myself and cycling as a sport.
DC Rainmaker 
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