Sunday's scare

I got scared today. Once was because of a road. I'm not normally scared of heights, but this thing, this ridiculous thread of a road, this microfiber glued to the side of a wall, really spooked me. It was barely wide enough for two bikes to pass each other, certainly not two cars. A sheer rocky precipice for hundreds of feet, and barely any railing. There were a few tiny tunnels, 2.5m wide by 2.5m high, where they couldn't scratch a turn on the surface of the cliff. I'm glad I can say I did it, but I don't need to do it again. Well, except that the rest of the road was pretty damn incredible riding.


The 2nd time I got scared was serious. It was only an instant, but I thought my trip was over. And it wasn't on a mountain road. I'd just entered a village square. It wasn't huge, but there were 5 roads converging, and the main thoroughfare made an ess curve. It was perhaps 75 meters from side to side. The plaza was empty, except for a man standing there hitch-hiking. He was the first person I've seen hitching in many months, in Europe or the States. I was traversing the square when a woman entered from the other side, driving a small car. She must have been distracted by the hitcher, because she did the first part of the ess through the square, but not the 2nd. as we passed, she kept veeering toward me. She was less that 30' away when I saw she was aiming right at me, about to T-bone my bike. At the last instant she jerked away and missed my leg by less than a foot. That got me so nervous, I had to stop for a sandwich and a beer.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/it/agordo/455127417575724742

She was very kind in helping me calm down after that last scare.

The easy road.