Off the Map

Do you Ever feel like Rubbish?

I feel like Rubbish.

Yesterday was the first really sunny day here in a couple weeks (so its a big deal, for those of you in Boulder). Of course I had to go running for an hour to make the best of the weather - so I did. I had also already set up a time that day to work out with a friend, and I'm not about to bail - so I worked out for an hour too. Yesterday saw the onset of my first cold in Germany, which is never good.

So today I'm sore from all that. But that's not even the best of it.

Today the other Jason and I had an Umfall (accident). I have reconfirmed my prior beliefs that BMWs are well made.
So the 2 of us are doing another standard downhill morning bike-ride to our intensive course. We are on a specific bike path, in the right spot, all nice and legal like. There are occasional side streets and intersections, from which cars are known to pull out and go about their way. At one such light-less intersection a BMW taxi pulled out very quickly from an area behind huge hedges (=no visibility) into the path of the bike lane, in order to watch for cars and get out on the main road.

This wouldn't have been a problem except that he did this about 15 feet in front of me (and Jason behind me) going 25 MPH down the hill. He didn't know we were there until I went flying over his hood. Now that I think about it, it must have been quite a shock to be focusing on going somewhere in a hurry only to hear *THUD* (Latimer flies backwards in front of the hood)
-2 seconds later- *THUD* (Other Jason flies forwards over hood).

In spite of my scratches and bruises, I still scored Major style points! Upon seeing the car whip out in front of me I naturally slammed on my breaks and tried to swerve around. I almost made it. I ended up hitting his slightly moving front bumper with my left leg - which launched me several feet in the air wherein I somehow ended up spinning around (I remember looking back between my legs midair only to see my bike knocked into the main street by the taxi). Next thing I know I'm sliding along the pavement with my backpack (a very durable laptop-backpack with lots of cushioning and a waist & chest strap set which I had thankfully buckled at the time) still strapped to me, so that I'm essentially lying on my back. My beloved Nalgene bottle was launched a good 25 feet into traffic from its pocket on the back of the pack. I was really lucky that I slid and let the backpack absorb all the hit (but it still looks great!).

The other Jason was not so lucky. He was behind me before the collision, but even with that extra couple seconds was not able to avert a hit. Where I had gotten around to the front of the car, he hit the side. His bike stopped short and he actually flew over the hood, only to catch his weight on his wrist and knee on the other side. He managed to leave a dent in the car and take off its front right hubcap. Though we didn't know it at the time, his front bike fork was bent in by the impact and was rendered unrideable.

The Aftermath: My bike as a couple small scratches, but is no worse off than when I unlocked it this morning. Jason's bike is a sorry mess. Jason'll have some bad roadrash on his knee and hand, but will be fine aside from that. I'll have some bruising on my left leg and have some other random scratches, but am also in decent shape - all things considered.

But crikey, I'm really going to be feeling sorry in the morning :-).

posted by Jason @ 3:46 pm