Near Miss

Every day I get on my bike, I say to myself, "Today is the day I will fall off of my bike." I've said it since my first ride with #brucethebike. It's just something I started in an effort to remind myself to never get cocky and to always remember to unclip. Every time I say it, I envision a slow-speed tipover at a stop sign. 

This morning, I took this picture of myself. I posted it on Instagram and Facebook and said, "Feeling fancy and legit today. This is the day I will fall off my bike."

This morning we had a 40% chance of showers we were trying to outrun. The roads were a little damp, but not wet enough to keep us inside. My group usually rides 40+. I haven't had a chance to ride with them since I actually broke 30, so this was new territory. We took a different route that I was unfamiliar with. Seeing all the variables here?

Anyway, we were almost back to my car and we were coming up on a green and it was a major intersection. I thought I heard our lead guy say "GOING!" so I cranked it only to hear him yell "STOPPING!" The pavement was wet by now as more showers had come through the area and I fishtailed pretty bad. My front tire was shaking and I was damn near out in the intersection (like, access road to the interstate intersection). The whole 2 seconds, I kept repeating to myself, "Get your foot out... get your foot out..." but I wasn't stable enough to get enough torque to get out. At the LAST second, I pulled out and managed to save myself. That, friends. That was terrifying. I'm glad it happened, though, to give me an idea of what to expect and how I would react. I'm glad it didn't happen on race day and I'm glad it happened with good friends but I never care to repeat that.

That was the last day that I'll ever say something to tempt fate when I'm getting on #brucethebike. Lesson learned.