The bike traffic reached a point that was just crazy, and I wondered aloud, “Are we close to the lunch stop?” My hope was that the answer was yes and that the slowdown and crowd were a symptom of that. I was not excited by the idea of riding the next thirty miles to Austin in a herd at that pace.
A man who’s fellow riders identified as Craig S. from team Boardwalk, passed by me as I asked my question, and he turned back to take a look at me. In doing so, he did not see the large orange cone in front of him, and he ran right over it. The situation had twenty bike pile up potential, but not with Craig S. and the wheel.
I have no idea how he stayed up right on his bike. The degree of the angle formed by his bike and the ground must have been less than 45 degrees as he got wrapped up into the cone. If he had fallen bikers behind him most likely would have collided into him. But, instead of kissing the pavement and cursing the blonde girl in the pink running shirt, he pulled his bike up right with the cone still stuck underneath. He then managed to dislodge the cone and return it to its upright position on the line with its fellow cones, thus eliminating any hazard to the riders behind him. He did all of this without stopping or falling off his bike.
His team and every cyclist that witnessed it, cheered him on enthusiastically. Everyone was impressed, clearly this was not Craig S’s first rodeo. I was both impressed by his presence of mind and skill to deal with the situation and relieved that he did not fall because I distracted him with my question. I told him that his rendezvous with the orange cone was going in the blog, and I gave him the URL for it. He asked to be quoted as saying, “This is a lesson that you should not check out the cute girl on the bike.”
I hope that Craig S and team Boardwalk went on the have a safe trip to Austin!
Next up…less than 30 miles to Austin!