Windy week

I rode every day this week, and the days have started to blur. Lovely day Monday, rain in the morning and again going home Tuesday, fine for Ride to Work day, windy Thursday going in, windy coming home Friday. A couple of nights there I found it a real slog getting home,
down Millers Road with the wind coming straight off the Bay, and me grinding along
at about 13 K per hour. Bruises from my fall the previous week have come out in spectacular fashion, and all in all I found myself feeling a bit sorry for myself a few times this week.

Sorry to frighten you - but here's an illustration of what can happen if bicycles and cars come into contact. Best avoided.

Nice to see so many people trying out cycling on Ride to Work day. Quite a few red faces and bikes wobbling gamely along. A huge sea of cyclists at Fed Square – the queue for breakfast seemed to bisect it diagonally when I got there, and as I had a meeting at work I had to miss the bacon and eggs. Next year I’ll try to get there earlier. Saw some pretty awful cyclist behavior on the way home on Wednesday. A line of cyclists are winding through the bit of Footscray Road bike path which is adjacent to the big ferris wheel construction. One guy decides to pass some of the line. Another guy decides to follow him. Cyclist approaches from opposite direction. First guy has probably taken the approaching cyclist in his calculations, and slots into the line going our way. Second guy hasn’t seen the approaching cyclist and a head-on is very narrowly averted. You wouldn’t overtake in a car if you couldn’t see that it was safe ahead to do it, why do people do it on bikes?

Whatever, I think the number of cyclists along my commute went up a bit Thursday and Friday – pity the weather wasn’t a bit kinder. If only we’d had a few days like today, with light wind, blue skies, balmy temperature. Its just magic to be out on a bike on a day like today.

On Friday, another exchange of viewpoints with a van driver at that intersection at the bottom of Parker street – almost a re-run of a previous encounter a few weeks back. Van wants to turn right, cyclists heading straight across Whitehall street. Cyclists have right of way. Van believes it has right of way. Vigorous hand signaling from Van driver. It’s a nasty intersection that one, and one which I will avoid in future.

Tally for week

288 k
Rained on: light sprinkling Tuesday am and pm.
Nearish miss: right turning van failing to give way.
Punctures: none
Paintstripping head winds: 3, Tuesday night ,Thursday morning, Friday night.
$ spent on bike stuff: None.