Almost Had a Pedal Unclip Fall

A few weeks ago, Weiland posted about a track stand that turned into a fall.  I posted a snarky comment on his blog, then made a sarcastic reference to the fall in my own blog.  This morning, karma almost got me.

I got up at 5am to ride intervals in the neighborhood.  I rode north on Solera Drive, and as I approached the stop sign at Los Milagros I slowed a little, not really thinking about stopping, as I expected a clear intersection.  It was 5am, after all.  I see maybe 3 cars when I ride between 5a-6a, and as a result have come to expect no traffic to avoid.

My expectations were wrong, because a truck was approaching from the left, and did not have a stop sign.  I grabbed a good handful of brake, slowed to a near stop, and felt myself begin to fall over to the right.  I thought about unclipping, but I think my legs were frozen.  Luckily, I was taking my half of the road in the middle.  As my balance shifted to the right, instead of falling I just steered into the fall, and executed a nice little snappy loop.

If you're a cyclist, you know that this trick usually won't work.  You'll hit the curb.  Or you'll slip in gravel and fall.  Or you'll lean so deep into the turn that you'll fall anyway.  Or you'll be with a group and someone will be to your right.  I'm surprised I didn't fall myself, as I have ZERO track experience, and just sort of let the turn happen naturally.  I'll probably fall next time.

You can see the nice little loop on the GPS overlay below.  It's above the 2800 mark on Solera.  Weiland, you almost had some blog fodder.

Map from Google Maps