Not as bad as some of the crashes other members have had but still a wake up call...
About 2/3 of the way done with an 80ish mi out and back today im riding in the bike lane of a 2 lane road(gulf going through indian rocks for those in the tampa bay area). Im traveling at a pretty fast speed, making good time, thinking about how many more cals i want to add to future rides, how long i want to run after i get off the bike etc. On the opposite side of the road i see a pt cruiser approaching, as im getting close the lady apparently decided she needed to make a u-turn. She makes the u turn maybe 5-10 ft(estimating, it happened so quickly) in front of me angled all the way across the bike lane/shoulder, think -> /. I was in the aero position and had just enough time to get out of it and slam on the brakes skidding to about 10 mph and angle the bike so id glance off the car(rear passenger door)better, i had nowhere else to go and had no time to do anything else. I get up and notice i put a nice gash taking up a good part of her rear door so im thinking i had to do some good damage to the bike, the QR had not a scratch. Apparently the handlebar/brake lever is the part that took the impact, it twisted so i twisted it back and everything seemed good. I check myself, bloody knee, no big deal plenty of those before. Lady gets out crying saying shes so sorry she wasnt paying attention, was on the phone etc. I tell her shes an idiot, she should watch where shes driving etc. Shes checking my body up and down for any injuries as i check the bike. I dust my back off and ride away, its over with.
Im glad my first, and hopefully last, encounter was relatively harmless but its pretty crazy how fast these things can happen. Should i have done anything else in the situation? If anything was damaged i would have called the police but i figured since i was fine and the bike was fine i should just be thankful it wasnt worse and move on? Also it was a nice way to make me forget about how sore my neck was from being in the aero position basically the whole way! Knee was a little sore on the run afterwards but nothing unbareable.
Be careful out there!
About 2/3 of the way done with an 80ish mi out and back today im riding in the bike lane of a 2 lane road(gulf going through indian rocks for those in the tampa bay area). Im traveling at a pretty fast speed, making good time, thinking about how many more cals i want to add to future rides, how long i want to run after i get off the bike etc. On the opposite side of the road i see a pt cruiser approaching, as im getting close the lady apparently decided she needed to make a u-turn. She makes the u turn maybe 5-10 ft(estimating, it happened so quickly) in front of me angled all the way across the bike lane/shoulder, think -> /. I was in the aero position and had just enough time to get out of it and slam on the brakes skidding to about 10 mph and angle the bike so id glance off the car(rear passenger door)better, i had nowhere else to go and had no time to do anything else. I get up and notice i put a nice gash taking up a good part of her rear door so im thinking i had to do some good damage to the bike, the QR had not a scratch. Apparently the handlebar/brake lever is the part that took the impact, it twisted so i twisted it back and everything seemed good. I check myself, bloody knee, no big deal plenty of those before. Lady gets out crying saying shes so sorry she wasnt paying attention, was on the phone etc. I tell her shes an idiot, she should watch where shes driving etc. Shes checking my body up and down for any injuries as i check the bike. I dust my back off and ride away, its over with.
Im glad my first, and hopefully last, encounter was relatively harmless but its pretty crazy how fast these things can happen. Should i have done anything else in the situation? If anything was damaged i would have called the police but i figured since i was fine and the bike was fine i should just be thankful it wasnt worse and move on? Also it was a nice way to make me forget about how sore my neck was from being in the aero position basically the whole way! Knee was a little sore on the run afterwards but nothing unbareable.
Be careful out there!