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Subject: What the odds of this could be? True story I was riding with 16 bicycle road racers
in Minneapolis Sunday, March 19, 2000. We're about 40 miles south of
Minneapolis on a 95 mile training ride. We're doing about 30 miles an
hour in a tight pack on a nice corner along the Minnesota River.
I'm taking my turn up front with another rider about 12" to my right
with about 14 guys drafting right behind us.
Out jumps a neurotic fox squirrel at
about 100 MPH and I never saw it until I hit it with my front wheel.
This little prick with a tail is about 50% bigger than your normal gray
squirrel, at least a two-pounder, and I swear it even had fangs.
So BANG, I hit it, I stayed up but then
the fur started flying. I ride Rolf Vector Pro wheels with the bladed
spokes. Thanks Mr. Rolf for adding this nice Ginsu knife feature! The
Squirrel got caught in those and it shredded fur, hide, guts & about
every imaginable body part of that little puke all over my bike and the
fronts of my legs. After coming to a stop, my friends were kind enough
to pick most of the stuff out of the spoke joints.
Damage to the bike was substantial. The
fork crown bent back, blew out the headset and trashed the speedo. This
is a US Postal Service Carbon Fiber road bike. The bike is stripped now
and was Fed-X'd to the factory to be X-Ray'd for frame cracks up by the
steer tube. If it is, I buy a new frame, fork & headset — Way big
bucks. If no cracks, then a carbon fiber fork & headset — a little less
than way big bucks.
What did I do to a squirrel to deserve
this public assault? All squirrels now must die...
What are the odds?
— Pete in Minneapolis, Minn.
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