"Oh Shit" moments...

Yesterday offered more two more "Oh Shit..." moments from East Africa:

Oh Shit #1: Descending on a wide national road, 55kph ish, good conditions, no vehicles, pedestrians keeping neatly to the side - until the boy sprinted. A six year old on the other side of the road decided to start running diagonally across and downhill, such that he couldn't even see me coming. I grabbed handfuls of brake and shouted the loudest I could, and he changed course at the last second. I was a bit shaken.

Oh Shit #2 Later we started a steady climb, we were overtaken by a flat bed lorry. We often get overtaken by trucks all the time with little room to spare, so the usual tactics are second nature: Hold your line in primary, drift towards the kerb as they pass, don't inhale the black diesel cloud. This truck revved with intent. No worries. It began to overtake with a 1m gap. No worries. As I started my drift kerb-wards I noticed a considerable body of metal float swiftly past my ear, inches away. Huge WTF. This truck had a large Caterpillar excavator on back, and the nasty front part was 2m+ wider than the truck (you know, the big scoop part). That created a precarious 1m+ of overhang on each side, which would have clipped me on the back of the head without the kerb drift tactic. So the excavator blade which normally cuts through the ground would have cut through a nice chunk of European roadie.

Oh Shit #2.1 The climb increased, and the truck slowed to 5kph, blocking most of the road. If we overtook uphill, it would perhaps try to overtake us again on the next descent. Would it kill us? We knew the next 10km was mostly uphill, so we chanced it and just climbed as hard as we could - but whenever we reached a flat or downhill section we were nervously shoulder-checking. Once we reached the final 7km winding descent we knew we were in the clear as the truck would need to crawl. It was basically the plot of the film Duel.

Oof! Makes you think how easy it is to be sayanara-ed. Glad you drifted.

Uhhuh. I guess the driver doesn't carry those machines every day and just went into auto-pilot, assuming he was in a normal-sized truck without a super-wide death trap on the back. It's a loooong road, so probably easy to just zone out and attempt a routine overtake.

Clipped a monkey!

Descending a windy mountain road at about 50kph, two monkeys were chilling in the space between the road and the rock face - off my side of the tarmac. A big truck was climbing on the other side of the road. Seeing all this coming, the monkeys freaked out and tried to run back to the trees on the other side of the road (the truck's side). I shouted super loud but that just motivated them more. First monkey just cleared my front wheel, second hit my rear wheel. I looked back and it was still moving quickly so I don't think I hurt it too badly. Glad I didn't get knocked off course as it's a hairy descent.

Clipped a monkey!

Outer circle near the zoo?

Outer circle near the zoo?

Whitehall, near the Foreign Office.

This morning, when I woke up with a hangover and 15 feet to the nearest bowl.

Saw someone throwing up on the stairs down to the tube in Liverpool Street station this morning. Was it you?

Gladly not, my friend's toilet here in Warsaw had that honour.

Just found this and thought this was the most appropriate place to put it:

1 Attachment

What happened next?

Good detective skills.

#virtualrep

But, this should have gone before that one, in chronological order;

Further research concludes that it was a race ending crash. He, Manuel Cardoso, finished the stage, the Prologue of the 2010 Tour, but didn't start the next day.

That kit looked better with a bit more red on it.

Warsaw seems to have that effect.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-35984537

Well thats one way to remove the obstacle.

I went out early Tuesday morning to do a spot of bike tagging. It was really beautiful out there and great to get in 20 miles of almost traffic free urban riding before 7.30am.

I did, however, have a massive oh shit moment.

I had turned left off the downhill section of Pentonville Rd and had stopped in the ASL at the lights that join to onto Kings Cross Rd. There's a lorry behind me, so when the lights go green I pull away downhill pretty quick and then follow the road round to the right, to head over to Gray's Inn Rd. Swinton St, I think.

As I turn into Swinton St I'm having a bit of trouble getting my left foot into the power strap so look down to help get it sorted. When I look up again, I see that my front wheel is about a foot away from a sharp edged kerb stone that forms a pavement that juts into the street. I am moments away from smashing into it, and either flipping head over heels or bouncing into the road and definitely dying under the unforgiving wheels of the lorry that is somewhere behind me.

Oh Shit!

My reptile brain kicks in and pulls my front brake whilst steering at the same time. I go into a massive endo and actually swerve on my front wheel whilst the rear is a good foot or so off the tarmac. Release the front brake to drop the endo and miss the kerb stone by fractions.

Heartbeat in the upper 190s, I pull over to the kerb and start shaking. The lorry driver behind gives me a thumbs up as I glanced at him in disbelief.

11/7 for mad bike control skills, would nearly die again.

Have you considered SPDs?

Not on my single speed. Convenience of footwear is more important to me than solid foot retention. Or safety, it turns out.

Casual shoes that take cleats?

No. I want to be able to ride in whichever shoes I'm wearing. Casual, smart, sandals. Heels.

Bike tag before lunch >>>> epic wtf