We were now back on the road heading down to the city. All was well as we were zig zagging our way towards the convention center. So, we are heading East on Cole with the convention center on our right and come across three large charter busses as you see in the picture below.
As you can see, the busses were extending out into the right lane of the eastbound lanes. We approached the busses from the west and came through the cones and around the parked busses. Well, as we came around the busses, I see a gathering of people waiting at the service entrance as if there were some VIPs in the area but the other rider hadn't cleared the busses yet and didn't see the activity until a few seconds later.
As it turns out, the busses were there for the New Orleans Saints that were in the stadium doing pre-game preparations for Sunday's game with the St. Louis Rams. The crowd was waiting for the team to exit to get a glimpse of the team and players.
Well, no doubt that the crowd had caught my attention and I immediately did a double take to my right and then started to apply my brakes slowing me down. About a split second after that, I either heard the other rider behind me yell or something caught my attention (or a premonition) that something wasn't quite right. Remember, this was all happening in fractions of a second but seemed like a lot longer as I replay everything in my mind. After turning my head right to see what was going on, I immediately turned back to my left, about a 180 degree head turn, only to realize that the other rider and I were about to share some close moments together. Remember, there was a crowd of about 25+ people or so watching the service entrance to the convention center.
Then it happened! Just 5 miles into our 50 mile ride, and it happened! All of those people waiting for those football players to come out of the convention center heard some yelling, commotion, etc., and immediately turned to the street to see what was happening. All eyes were now on these two cyclists in all their spandex glory passing by and then immediately colliding in front of a captive crowd. In a split second, two cyclists went down on the street due to no fault of vehicular traffic or the like. I immediately went from a left slow banking maneuver to a hard right turn into a parked vehicle. The other rider went veering left to the ground. So here we are laying on the ground staring and looking up at the horror on the spectators faces, a few of which ran out to see if we were okay. So we dusted ourselves off, stood up and did some bike checks and then moved to the sidewalk, somewhat in a state of dismay as to what just happened.
So after a few minutes of tinkering with the bikes to ensure we had safe transport back home, we noticed the crowd was still looking at us in amazement and wonder. Or maybe I should say they were staring in awe and disbelief of what just happened. Some asked again if we were okay and of course, we replied all was well. Although they may not have believed us, and the physical evidence seemed to say otherwise, we were basically okay and the bikes didn't appear to get damaged other than some chain jamming. In spite of the gouged knees and blood running down the other rider's legs as well as the damage my body impact inflicted on that poor parked vehicle, we were in fact generally okay.
I have always been very cautious cycling around or alongside parked cars. Sometimes parked cars have doors open into the street with no notice and sometimes parked cars pull out without notice or warning. However, I never envisioned that parked cars should be looking out for me instead. We didn't notice anything unusual about the parked car right after the accident occurred but one of the spectators went around to the parked vehicle later and noticed some damage. Observing their action and movements, I went around to notice what they had seen. My body impact (right thigh, right arm and right shoulder) actually dented this large SUV on the upper side of the wheel well, across the crease of all places (creases are a high strength area to stiffen the metal for better support). The pictures below show my impact on the car.
The interesting part was that there was no evidence of metal on metal so it appears that I only made body contact with the vehicle. Didn't see any scratches from my brake levers or metal handle bars, etc. There was also juice on the vehicle from my juice bottle which was a no drip bottle. I can only surmise that upon impact, I hit hard enough to compress my water bottle with my right leg or right knee as the forces pushed me into the car. Now think about it, my bottle was no drip and it is mounted on the center upright. I am not sure I could ever get into a position to squeeze my drip proof water bottle with my knees under normal circumstances. Some weird stuff happens when forces like that are exerted during those split seconds for sure!
Just glad that we were able to ride away with as few injuries as we did. We decided that the ride started out weird with two flats, and then the incident at the convention center happened. All within 5 miles of the start. We decided that was sufficient revelation to turn us back and head back to Forest Park to head home.
Now the ride back also proved interesting. I was riding in front and the other rider was in back. Every time we passed an intersection, especially when the vehicles were stopped in the other direction, they did double takes at the legs of the other rider as he rode by them. Quite a sight it was I am sure. Those knees were nasty looking with blood stains that had run from the knees down to the socks. The knee scrapes pretty much covered 90% of the knee with the left knee a bit worse than the other. Of course, at least two different drivers we passed along the way looked in amazement and said to the rider, "hey your knees are all messed up." We actually got a laugh or two out of those responses as it was fairly obvious that the other riders knees were in fact messed up. No kidding! Nothing like stating the obvious.
So to finish off this story with the final kicker, and what I find to be a "go figure" type of situation or statement given the weirdness of this ever so short ride, I leave you with the following picture. Feel free to laugh or chuckle at this as I certainly have given the situation and circumstances. Kind of ironic really.
Yes, that was a new St. Louis City Police vehicle! Go figure! But it was an accident Officer!
So, not sure if I will be in court pleading my case as an uninsured/underinsured cyclist. Should be fun explaining this to my insurance agent Monday morning. I can just hear them saying, "Can you explain that to me one more time again?"
So instead of this blog title being "Just another Fall ride...", it is more aptly stated, "Just another fall..."
In the end, I fell short of both goals I set out to achieve today. The ride was around 11 miles when all was said and done. I fell short of my goal of passing the 3000th mile mark by 4 miles. It was a hard earned 11 miles! Also, I did not make it to Madison County, IL to chart any new routes. However, we did make it home without any ambulance rides or broken bones.
Mogman
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