Accident on a 75 mile ride

Miles this week: 108
Miles to date: 549

Lessons learned or reminded to me
- Don't follow too close to a rider I don't know.
- Be especially alert if riding with riders I don't know.
- Be observant of warnings.
- Don't change your plans except with good reason. See v. 23.
- This is not about chasing my brother's training miles.
- How important are all the different parts of the body to our life. See v. 15.

Okay, I don't feel much like writing, but I am thankful to be writing.

I could not go out with my brother this am, who was leaving early. Rather, I decided to attend a men's breakfast at my church. The speaker spoke about hell. Yes, hell. See at the end of this blog some of what he told us from the Scriptures.

So, I left home about 11:34. My goal was to take the same route as my brother, who left about 8:30. He was going to ride 90-100 miles. I proudly would do the same. What an opportunity to see how we compare in fitness at this point in Etape preparation.

But, I had an uneasy feeling about this plan. For one, I would be returning rather late if he did 100 miles. Of course, I was taking my cell phone and so could check up on his route.

Basically the route takes me southwest of Nashville - the Boulevard, the park, Vaughn Road, Sneed Road, the Trace to Leipers Fork, then - I will fail to remember the roads (it's the Glenn Wanner Snow Creek ride from there) - Sulphur Springs, Snow Creek, and so forth, back onto the Trace and back to Leipers Fork, then back home somehow. By that point, the somehow would most likely be the most direct.

However, I began to tag along with a couple of other riders on the Trace about one hour & thirty minutes out. Off the Trace, they offered me to join them. I hesitated, still wanting to do my brother's route. But, I was not sure at this point the exact route he had taken. And, since they were going to shorten my loop at this point in the ride by about eight miles, this would get me home quicker.

After riding with them about an hour, and I was usually in the second position, we had an accident. I went down and jammed my thumb, scraped my knuckles, and did some damage to my thumb at the fingernail. Not too bad, though the results of the thumb damage is possibly yet to be determined.

At the time of the accident, I was in third position. The rear two of us had been t alking about my bicycle (Rivendell) and had drifted behind rider no. 1 about 30 yards. As we were wrapping the conversation up, we were also closer to rider no. 1. All the sudden, rider two is hard on the brakes, rider one is stopped or nearly stopped - what is this!? We are going 22 mph or so and have an abrupt stop! My front wheel gets about a two-three inch overlap on the rear wheel of no. 2, he turns right a bit to avoid no. 1, and that pushes my tire to the right and I go down to the left, sort-of toward no. 1. I may have reached out to stop my fall to no. 1. I can't recall the details of the fall. My left hand and arm must have broken the fall somewhat. But, somehow, my right hand gets to the front of my body - chest or stomach or maybe waist area, and gets pinned between the asphalt and my body as I slide forward some small distance on the road. I could feel it being scraped rather harshly. The thumb was turned toward the asphalt.

All in all, in the big scheme of things, minor injuries. I should be thankful. I am thankful that I have my thumb. But injured and tender and hurting, I realize I am quite dependent on it about every 30 seconds of my waking life for something.

Turns out the rider no. 1 stopped because a couple of dogs were barking and I guess moving our direction from a yard on the left side of the road. I don't stop when I see dogs. 50+ % of the time they don't seriously chase me. And if they do, it's mostly for show. The rare dog that seems to want to bite and gets close, I can usually scare away. In fact, in 18-20 years of cycling, I may have been bit once, not seriously.

There was something of a foreshadowing of the abrupt stop for the dog. Earlier, we had rounded a curve and about 50 yards down the road were two dogs beside the road. Rider no. 1 noticed them first and gave us a heads-up. I thought that was a bit odd. Why such an alert for two dogs. Turns out those dogs did not move one foot as we passed.

My brother thought it fitting to tell me, after my ride home, that he always thought I followed too close on the wheels of riders I did not know. He's right. That may have had a little to do with my going down today.

We finished their ride, back to their car. They realized I needed help. They went rather slow for me the rest of the way. I did my best, but they were stronger riders - they had not ridden the one hour 1/2 prior to our hooking up either. They took me home, shortening my ride another 15 + miles.

My total mileage was about 75.


Hell. A place where God's wrath against unholiness burns forever. Where unredeemed men/women will spend eternity. How can a holy, pure, sinless, just God forgive the sin of a man? Can he ignore our sin and be just? No. How can the justice of God be satisfied if men are to be saved from his wrath?

The Scripture teaches a hell. Against all my rational thinking, then, I acknowledge it is so. Hell, the place of eternal, unquenched fire. Not one second in a burning oven, not 15 seconds there, not one minute, not one day or one year. In each case, if I knew it would end and I would remain, there might be some way my mind could survive it all. But eternally.

The Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Scripture teaches that many men throughout the ages will reject God's salvation. How many of Noah's day rejected? All but eight. Eight. The rest perished. And in hell, they will still not repent.

For by grace are you saved through faith - faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for the sin of men - and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

If you have not trusted Jesus Christ's sacrifice for you, consider the Scriptures promptly in these matters, and believe on the the Lord Jesus Christ.