My Mysterious Guardian Angel Cyclist



Feanor

New Member
Jul 21, 2003
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Greetings all!

As I was hoping, road biking is very much agreeing with me after I made the transition from mountain biking recently, and I'm finding the biggest problem to date is NOT riding rather than riding (still plenty of work to do around the bouse and the wife doesn't appreciate my disappearing on the bike for hours on end on the weekends and during dinner time during the week...)

Which brings me to the story (do road bikers build up funny stories at a greater rate than mountain bikers?) Saturday, and I am pedalling along solo as is normal and from the street intersection about a hundred yards ahead a stunning redhead turns onto the street in front of me... If Nicole Kidman has a younger sister, than I'm certain that this woman is it...

Notwithstanding the other members of the forum who say its just the way it is when you ride up to the wheel of another cyclist for no apparent reason, there was definitely a subliminal reason here *laughing*

She was on a hybrid type bike and I came alongside and said hello, and we road for the next few minutes talking about bikes and cycling and the weather and movies etc...

Because I am not stupid I of course mentioned the wife and we actually spent most of the time after that talking about quirks that we loved about our respective spouses... Stunning beauty aside, she was a very nice person! :)

Time passes on the ride and we get to a stop light... I'm completely absorbed in talking about the movie "The Ring" which she also liked and with my brain concentrating on that subject, of course the first piece of information to get pushed out the other side is that I am riding a bike with clipless pedals...

Rolling to a stop slowly at the red light... I make the simple, unconcious motion of putting my foot on the ground, simple, if I hadn't been a clueless rube that is...

I slowly start to lean away from her, helpless, and that internal scream begins to build which can only culminate in withering shame, embarassment, and of course dozens of witnesses...

All of a sudden I feel a slight pressure on my shoulder that gives me the precious milliseconds of extra time required to unclip and get my foot on the ground... It happened so smoothly and quickly that it didn't even break the cadence of our conversation...

I look over to my left and there is a road cyclist to my side in a Michelin team jersey (nice colors by the way) who had reached out and kept me from examing the pavement with my hip... My read is that he must have seen me from behind rolling to an almost complete stop without disengaging a shoe...

He gave me a quick nod and a smiled and said hi to us both, and the light turned green and he went off in front of us while I continued the conversation virtually uninterupted and with my dignity still mainly intact...

After that, the flashing neon sign: "You are in clipless pedals!" continually flashed in the forefront of my mind during all the rest of the ride... We ended up trading numbers before parting and arranging for bringing the spouses next time for a foursome ride for coffee next weekend. Apparently her husband rides also and belongs to a club that rides often, and she had been breaking in her new bike in preparation for that... She invited the two of us to the next group ride as well...

So far I've had more interaction and met more really nice people in the last two weeks road biking than I have in mountain biking for months on end!

Its a great time :) and to the Michelin clad road cyclist who saved me from a chilling embarassment...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

Feanor
 
Another nice story! Feanor, there is difinitely a hidden author inside of you. :D

I hope you mentioned our community to her? We need more ladies over here!
 
Many years ago, I was in college and had just bargained a rich kid out of his all Campy Super Record/531 framed Falcon cycle. Pretty much state of the art at the time, I really regret selling it. Anyway, one day as I coasted to a stop, I had a foot hang up in the straps, and over she goes - right in front of the dorm, where everyone saw it. Pride goeth before the fall, or right after in this case.
 
:) Thanks for the words guys!

It just seems like there is so much more pleasant interaction now that I am on the road instead of the trail... I still have wonderful memories of the trails off road, but those are almost all memories of being solo...

Vo2 I'll make certain to mention the website this weekend! I can't understand what distracted me into forgetting to bring that up... Oh wait, yes I can *laughing*

But she really is incredibly nice, very well spoken, and she has just a "tinge" of a British accent which drives me WILD! LOL!

Maybe I should start a thread called, "Relate your most memorable "clipless" or "Toestrap" experience :)

That should flood the board with great stories!

Have a good one!

Feanor
 

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