Did I Jinx Myself?

 

Last Monday the Fat Cyclist had a contest for when to use Laser Beams of Death. I commented

Assuming I hadn’t already used my LBOD on one of the other handful of rednecks that have threatened to intentionally run me over, I would have used it a couple years ago while I was riding in Vegas. I had gotten up early and ridden out to Red Rocks before I had to help set up the network for a conference.

It had been a great ride and I was headed back toward the strip. I was riding on a 6 lane road with a full traffic width bike lane. I was over half way over in the bike lane.

I was in my own world when I was struck in the back of the head. I was dazed but saw a bottle of water go bouncing with several ounces of water left in it. Then I saw the big, black Ford truck with a Go Fast sticker that was nearly as big as the tailgate. The passenger had the window down. I wan’t able to get the license plate number though.

The truck was probably going 50 mph but the light a block ahead was red. I started sprinting after them. I was going to at a minimum get the license number but hopefully get to yell at them and who knows what else I would have done.

Just as they were getting to the light with several stopped cars, the left turn arrow turned green. They whipped across 3 lanes of traffic and made the left turn and were gone. I had a headache most of the rest of the day but fortunately nothing worse. The bottle had hit my helmet. I think it would have been much worse if had hit my neck below my helmet. Had I had my LBOD they wouldn’t have been a menace to other cyclists.

Today I was riding near Grand Junction and someone threw a Pepsi bottle at me that had enough Pepsi left in it to really hurt. Fortunately they didn’t have as good of aim as the guy in Vegas.

I’ve had someone slow down and the passenger smack me on the butt, a firecracker shot into my rear tire, ice thrown at me, a pickup pull to the right of me in a gravel pullout and then slide and spray gravel at me. Fortunately I’ve only hit a car once and I haven’t had any serious injuries. Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself again. What things have you had done to you while you’ve been riding?

Below is a preview of my ride. I’ll get a ride report and more pictures posted in the next couple days.

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Tags: cycling, share the road

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