More on Bohlman from John Morgan
As for Bohlman John Morgan has a great selection of Whine and Dine ride photos. He sent me this:
Here is a pix from our 6/19 ride we met up with the Los Gatos group and had a group shot. On top of Bohman 6/24 and Steve here is the rest of the pix if you see any thing you like.
Close encounters of a tractor-trailer kind
Yes, it was a long and scary story about what happened on this year's Sierra to the Sea.
On Thursday morning a week ago I was riding on Hwy 128 out of Calistoga toward the Alexander Valley, the road had no shoulder and an undulating drop off ditch on the right. I remember it as a slight uphill inside curve (to the right) with a cliff beyond the ditch. It is a blind situation and I was riding slow, somewhat uphill, when this semi came up behind me. I could hear the howl of his Jake brake as he approached. He slowed down and was following me through the curve, so I thought, "fine, I will get out of his way when I hit the straight away."
Then I heard him rev up his motor. He was passing me!
He actually pulled out a bit over the double yellow. I thought that was pretty amazing since no oncoming car could see him due to the lack of visibility. The tractor cleared me fine, but the trailer always tracks inside the curve set by the tractor.
It was like a wedge, the further the tractor went down the road the closer the trailer behind it was getting to me. I was riding on the white line with no shoulder on a narrow road and there was nowhere to go!
I knew the double axles on the trailer would be coming up soon and the tail of the trailer would be occupying the space I was in. The ditch undulated up to road level. So, I turned off the road and unclipped. My road shoes are slick on the bottom so I was trying to stay up, but it was like trying to walk on ice.
I was afraid if I fell I would fall under the wheels of the truck's trailer. Thankfully I was able to stay up and get stopped as the truck went around the curve. After I got started again I saw the truck now on the straight part of the road. Another cyclist was riding on the road (now wide and straight with a shoulder.) The same truck that passed me swerved to the right so as to pass close to the slow moving cyclist.
12:15:06 PM 
|
