To me, getting buzzed by another vehicle does not involve an evasive maneuver.

An evasive maneuver that wasn't necessary. In other words, you freaked.... which is understandable... but that is different than *needing* to take evasive action.

If they didn't "buzz" you, what did they do???

Rruff, it was necessary or there would have been contact. The truck did not complete it's pass of me before pulling back over.

Would this whole situation have been better if you would have sat up and gone a little slower? Your attachment to people driving safely around you is causing some suffering on your part, hopefully not more in the future. Most drivers have no idea how fast people can go on a bicycle. We have to be very careful to avoid not getting involved in crashes as a result of drivers not having our training goals front and center in their minds.

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"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health"
- Hippocrates, 460-370 BC

Shade, sorry to see you've fallen victim to the ST police, it's pathetic that some feel the need to call you out for "not articulating" or "only getting buzzed". Perhaps folks, it's your inability to open your mind and visualize a written scenario. Would you all rather the OP came here and wrote about how they were run off the road and suffered x,y,z injury? Maybe that way you could lambaste the driver and call for their head? It's a shame some can't just say, "glad to year you're okay, stay alert stay alive". Glad you're okay!

Gagne, that's tough to answer. In reflection, I have no doubt that the first truck underestimated my speed as he attempted the pass. I was sitting up at this time.

Now if you mean before all of this occurred, perhaps, but I have doubts. Before this particular stretch, I always peek behind me to ensure that there aren't any vehicles awaiting a pass as there is a nice open flat with a considerable shoulder. There were no vehicles in sight. For the trucks to come upon me in the short time it took me to get from the flat to the downhill, I can only conclude they were exceeding the speed limit at a decent clip. The visceral reaction of the driver at the gas station suggests he was taken by surprise. The reason he pulled back into the lane early was probably because of other vehicles coming towards us in the other lane. I was concentrating on keeping control of my bike and was in "the zone" but I believe the oncoming vehicles were far enough off that they did not present a head on hazard with the truck. Nonetheless, he still cut his pass short. Then I was buzzed by the second truck...lol.

I do know I need to stop thinking about the situation and have even pondered asking Dan to delete the entire thread...especially considering some of the comments that keep me reliving it in my mind. I really didn't expect to have to defend myself or be doubted when I initially posted. The reactions of the drivers was pretty damning alone.

I will admit my initial writing of the incident itself wasn't clear. Would anyone's be shortly after such an event? Take into account that the adrenaline rush what it did to my blood sugar (I'm a type 1 diabetic) and I will admit to being in a fog most of the day.

The reasons I initially posted this was to point out the comments of the drivers at the gas station as well as the fact that their dangerous pass only gained them a second or two. Some here have basically said that these are irrelevant. My fire chief didn't seem to think so.

My main point is this: Take responsibility for the near crash, own it, and then you are empowered to take steps to avoid the situation in the future-otherwise keep blaming someone else and keep hashing it out in your brain as to how someone else should act.
It is like making a nutrition mistake during a race and having it ruin your race-or you can stop blaming the "too many gels-not enough water, ect" and take ownership.

Only you can approach things differently, the firefighter and drivers have already forgotten about the "asshole on the bike" you should too!

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"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health"
- Hippocrates, 460-370 BC

I'm thinking the problem here is that a lot of people in this thread don't ride very much, otherwise, they'd have encountered this exact situation as it comes up more frequently than I'd like.

You're riding along and a car passes you, or in this case, becomes overlapped with you. You can't see their turn signal at this point, so have no idea that they are preparing to turn left until they begin to slow down. Often, since they have sped up to pass the cyclist, the braking maneuver is fairly abrupt. Most of the time, they also move right even though they are preparing to make a left turn. I think often they are focusing on the oncoming traffic and it doesn't register that the biker they (but not necessarily their entire car) just passed hasn't somehow vanished. Depending on the shoulder, the cyclist is then left with the choice of crashing into the car, squeezing to the right of the car, or going off the road.

What is frustrating is that the car gains nothing by making this maneuver since they are about to slow down in order to make the turn anyways.

1. Or it could be that they ride a lot and that the OP took a number of posts before clearly articulating what happened.
2. My pet peeve is the cars that drift right (or left) before making a left (or right) turn. Seems to happen more often when they're making a sharp right. Unless you really in excess of the speed limit, it's completely unnecessary. I'll qualify that I'm talking about cars and not large trucks, where it might be necessary. But trained truck drivers, which should include a fire engineer, know this and know to watch out for it. That said, it doesn't sound like that was what happened here, as the left turn was 1/4 mile up the road.
3. People that ride a lot know thaty they're called cyclists and not bikers.