On almost buying the farm today

So today the Kona Dream (among other things) almost died. I was on my time trial bike shaking out my positional tweaks and making sure she is ready to hand over to Tri Bike Transport to send over to the Big Island this weekend. I'm bombing down the big hill on 52 and doing about 40 mph--maxing out my 55/13--when a lady pulls out 150 feet in front of me, stops and completely blocks the bike lane.

Everything seems to slow down. I'm up on my brakes. I hear the cars speeding down the hill to my left and behind me--no where to go! The rear wheel locks and I begin to fishtail. My front wheel is still rolling and I fight the gyrations as my rear wheel skids all over. I lay down over 50 feet of a skid mark. I decide to aim for the hood--I might be able to roll across and survive the impact reasonably in-tact. Ten feet from the car I see an out and take it by diving hard right--at about 20 mph--and slice into the road she came out of and pass just behind her and then roll unscathed away.

My HR is pegged and I'm feeling a huge rush. I feel my tire "bumping" and I stop--the lady is long gone--thanks! I dismount and look at the wheel and see that I have burned through the two outer most tread layers and that my tire now has a flat spot on it. How it didn't explode (and thank God it didn't!) I'll never know. Here is what it looked like:



Anyways, I'm very thankful that I caught a break today. I'm going to be extra vigilant in these my last few rides before I head to Hawaii. I was meaning to put new rubber on before Kona and I spent a few minutes this evening getting that task out of the way.

Whew!