The ride last night ended up being okay, it had some good points and some not so great points. Highlights included some lovely weather and being out during daylight, some of the lowlights included nearly being cleaned up by four different cars.
The ride was a hill repeat session, which I would usually do in King's Park. However, for this ride I wasn't going to have time to get to King's Park, do the hill repeats and get home again, so I decided I would look for a different hill, closer to home. Near my place there is one big bad of a hill, but my thoughts were that it was a bit to short and a bit to steep for this session. More of a power hill than a endurance hill, so I decided to look elsewhere. I found a different hill which seemed okay, it was the right sort of length for what I was after anyway. But after 20 minutes of hill repeats and two close calls with cars, I decided it was to busy and wasn't quite steep enough for my needs. Stuff it I thought, I will just go to the big bad hill, it might not be perfect, but it will certainly give me a work out and it is just for one session. In the end that decision ended up being a good one I think, from a hill interval perspective anyway.
The only downside of switching hills was that it led to the closest car encounter that I had for the entire ride. The hill is a pretty steep one, the sort where you can easily get above 50km/h on the descent, but it has a 90 degree corner 3/4 of the way down which requires you to slow right down. I had just come around this corner when I saw a Volvo backing out a drive. It obviously hadn't seen me come around the corner, since it kept on coming. I slammed on the brakes and quickly reached the point where I was decelerating as quickly as possible. At that stage I had the following thoughts in very quick succession:
I am not going to stop in time
Oh crap
Why the P5
Why a VOLVO!!!
What is the least painful way to smack into the back of a Volvo at 30km/h?
On reflection I have to say that I didn't come up with anything particularly reassuring for that last question.
Just as my brain was bracing for impact, by reactions took over, I nipped up a drive, cut in front of the Volvo, down the footpath a bit, down another driveway and back onto the road and on my way. If you didn't know any better you might have thought I had planned it that way (except for the hysterical screaming). I have to admit that one of my first thoughts immediately afterwards was 'That was awesome, tell me somebody saw that". I don't think anyone did.
Thoughts relating to the joy of not being smeared across the back of a Volvo came pretty quickly after.
I am not sure what it is, but somedays drivers just seem to collectively go insane. Or maybe it is just me.
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