Today, at about 6:40, I experienced something completely new. I was riding my bike on State road 77 (4000 S) west toward where the road curves south to go into Lake Shore and Benjamin. (the A is pretty close to where I was)
Before I get into the new experience of the day, let me give a little background. This is a road cycling haven. Long, flat, straight roads with little traffic. Last Saturday I rode out this road to West Mountain and had an incredible day. The few cars overtaking me were moving all the way to the other side of the road to give me plenty of room. Farmers waved hello from their tractors. I saw several other cyclists, real roadies who greeted me with a cheerful, one-hand-off-the-handlebar wave, and I felt like I had finally found the ladder to the secret clubhouse. It's a perfect place to start increasing the mileage on my endurance rides.
Today, it was not so perfect. A faded red, mid-to-late 80's Ford F-series with a silver/chrome strip down the side (I think that was the Lariat trim model) drove by me, heading east. I saw a dark object flying toward me and ducked my head instinctively. After (a non-trivial) impact, I briefly wondered how that big of a rock had gotten up on the road and thrown up by the truck. Then I saw the object, which had bounced off my head and was still in the air headed toward the cat-tails growing out of the ditch on the other side of the road, silhouetted against the sky. It was a largish (probably 32 oz.) bottle of water. I immediately stopped, but the truck was too far away to make out the license plate. Then I thought to take off my helmet and have a look.
To be clear, I'm okay. I've had a bit of a headache this evening, but I'm fine. But I was extremely lucky. If it had hit me anywhere other than the head (where my helmet earned its $100 by bouncing it clean off) or hit my bike, I would have been doing a 20 mph tumble on rough asphalt. Not to mention the injury the bottle would have done to me if it hit anywhere other than my helmet.
So now I have to buy a new helmet. And, for Nicole's peace of mind, I have to find someplace else to stretch out the miles when I go for a ride. (Provo Canyon is a great place to ride, but that's a pretty steep hill to go riding up for 20 miles, let alone the downhill trip on a fixed-gear...)
I know that nobody reading this blog is likely to be the kind of person who'd throw something out a truck going 45 mph at a cyclist. But everyone can help. You can help people start seeing cyclists. You can watch for instances of illegal and belligerent behavior toward cyclists and report them. Since it seems clear that some people will not use the brains God gave them, the rest of us have to pick up the slack, and it really needs to be sooner than later.
