Sunday, April 23, 2006

Target Practice
The Amherst-Wild Rose-Amherst Spring Classic training ride turned into a day of trying to avoid three to four deer that seemed intent on using our small peloton of cyclists for target practice as they attacked from one strategic location along the usually quiet back country roads in our area. This attempted deer attack came on a long winding downhill with the group rolling along at 35-40 mph in the usual aero tuck coasting position with Big D off the front when the first deer barely missed him and the next two deer shot out at us randomly. They somehow made it across the road without any carnage and the group survived with only rubber skid marks left on the pavement from the hard braking that a few of us took to avoid a serious collision. My first thought in the tenth of a second I had was to lay the bike down and take option #1 that would involve massive amounts of road rashed flesh versus option #2 that was t-boning the deer and breaking lots of bones if the collision was to become inevitable, but thankfully we all made it past these stupid animals. I had flahbacks of Eck, who at the Wausau WORS Elite race last Spring collided with a suicidal deer and the resulting injuries weren't pretty. It ruined his whole season. Some road rides are like Russian Roulette as you never can predict what might get thrown at you while out on the roads. Today's ride was just short of 80 miles with a tough wind out of the North which made it seem even longer.

Trail work at the Rocks went smoothly in the afternoon and the trails are now ready for opening day on May 1st. The first official club ride is that evening at 6pm starting from the Standing Rocks Road MTB parking lot.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scole - Is the "Big D" my little brother.... Dan Kr****s*i, the Bianchi-riding bloke who sprints like a mad-man?

I got to get back to the Point.

Jim Kr****s*i

Scott Cole said...

Jim,

"Big D" is the main man behind the WORS Dirt Circus Series. I think your bloke like brother is possibly waiting for a good lead out man before he starts sprinting like a mad-man? Next weekend join us for "Alp du Rib".