I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that every so often you leave the house with your mind filled with the real world and at some point you think to yourself, ‘geez today is a really bad day to ride because I’m way to worked up about work to ride’… But then you get on the bike and the world some how normalizes itself. You quickly forget about what worried you and instead take on the challenge of riding and soon the focus that’s required takes over your life. You simply can’t think about anything else but riding and before you know it you’re no longer worried about life but rather your survival in the very canyons and roads you adore.
I’ve commented quite a bit about the release that I feel riding provides and today was no exception. It’s a rather magical moment when you can let loose of everything that binds you and simply find yourself in the moment of riding. I’d like to say that there are other parts of my life that echo that same basic sentiment, but in reality there aren’t. It’s unique, it’s unqualified and it’s special.
That being said there are general rules on the road that ought to be obeyed and yet somehow today they weren’t. I came through several corners and found riders in my lane. Really for no apparent reason and while I’d like to say that was an exception, the reality is that chaos ruled the day. Just around noon I came through a corner on Mullhulland and found an SUV in my lane that was making a haphazard pass around a few bicycles. For a brief moment I was fairly convinced that my life was flashing before my eyes and for what? Passing two wantabe Lance Armstrongs?
To be fair I’ve always imagined that if I was to have a ‘get off’ in the canyons it’d be my fault and my doing, not a head on with an SUV that had no business passing a bunch of bicycle riders in my lane… Yet obviously you can’t trust logic or common sense or even fate. The reality is that if it’s possible, it can and will happen. In this case that meant an SUV in my lane when it clear shouldn’t have been there. For a brief moment I was sure this was it and time had coming to a stop, yet oddly I didn’t freak out. I didn’t panic. It was almost as if it simply happened to fast for me to realize. Almost to fast for me to even witness. Yet somehow that old adage, ‘ by the time you think about it, you’ve moved past it’ rang true. By the time I had an idea what I should do or more appropriately should have done, it was over and I was past the moment. Luckily the SUV swerved out of the way and I was safe. But god knows it didn’t have to end that way. Perhaps it shouldn’t have ended that way… And I suppose that’s the danger that we live with, the unknown. The chance that perhaps swinging our legs over our bikes means the end of our lives or at least a major change within them. Yesterday I felt fortunate to live in SoCal because of the winter weather. Today I feel fortunate simply to be alive.
I believe it’s time to get back to the track…
Some more picts from the ride…
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