Road Rash :-(

Hello Everyone,

So, the road won last night. I was coming up to a T-Intersection with a stop sign and started to position myself for my right turn. The City still hasn't cleaned the gravel off the roads from winter and it extended out into the road (rather than just along the side). I mistook it for old pavement as there was some earlier that looked like that and there were shadows from some trees on the road.

I turned slightly and down I went. Road rash on my knee extending a bit along the side of my calfe, on my right thigh, on top of my right shoulder; thumb is sore from where it jammed on my handlebars; broke a nail; got a couple little holes in the new cycling capris Jerry gave me. Polly will need new bar tape, had to tighten the bolt holding the front brake in place and I lost my water bottle.

Per Jerry's advice (after he tightened my brakes for me), I went home, took a shower and slathered myself in healing lotion. I'm riding Charlotte today since I had troubles applying my brake on Polly because of my sore thumb.

I'll heal quick but I'm sore today. For those of you unfamilar with the term, think back to when you were a kid and fell on gravel. You get a bunch of little (or big) surface scratches and a large surface burn (like rug burn). It hurts a lot since the injury is on the surface of your skin.

I haven't had a serious fall in Calgary yet (all my winter ones were more bruises or sliding on my side so I was pretty protected by my winter clothes). Last time I did anything like this was in grade 7 when I messed up my hand and it needed a couple months to heal (first and only time I went to Emergency for an injury). It was a controlled intersection and the cars behind me (and they were nicely back so no concern with them) stopped to make sure I was ok.

So here's my advice for the day:
1. Always wear gloves when cycling
2. Avoid loose gravel along the side of the road. It's dangerous and I avoid it like the plague. Its location on the road last night surprised me since it extended out through the lane.
3. Carry a first aid kit
4. When driving, don't crowd cyclist so they feel they should be riding in the gravel crap along the edge of the road. I see that quite often. And I force cars to give me the space I need to be safe.
5. (Completely unrelated) Don't honk your horn when passing a cyclist when you want to feel superior in your car. 2 a**holes did that last night to me. In the first instance, I was going downhill (speed around 30-35 since I have to watch my pedal speed on Polly) on a 2 lane road. I was riding in the middle of the lane (which is correct) because you need that extra space when you're travelling at high speeds in case you get into trouble. Van laid on horn as I was starting around the curve of the hill (about partway down) and passed me with about a foot of space. There was nobody in the other lane. Very dangerous driver. Second instance was at intersection turning left. I had oncoming traffic and as it was clearing, I got set to turn. Truck coming up from behind me layed on horn as he sped by on my right side. I was positioned in the intersection correctly, using my position to indicate I was turning left. I had put out my arm to signal my turn earlier. My hands were back on the handlebars as I was starting up again and needed to be able to manoeuver (accelerate and do my turn). FYI - a cyclist turning left in this circumstance turns at the same speed as a car. Another stupid driver. I don't think motorists realize just how dangerous their actions can be. A sudden horn being blasted in your ear is startling, which causes you to jump, which can lead to losing control. It also serves no purpose (since horns are suppose to be used to alert people to danger) since people become immune to them and they become ineffective when it's an actual warning. And in both instances, the vehicles illegally passed me.

Ok - that's my rant for the day. It's one that sets me off quite often since it seems to be popular.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! It's going to be warm and sunny here!