Hello, my name is Mike and I am an idiot.

[Elefantino]

Was doing bridge repeats at lunch today. I do 10, usually; the bridge is a mile long. The ninth repeat is always when I push it to the red zone. So I'm pushing it on the uphill, looking at my Polar, and BAM! Suddenly I have gone through the back windshield of a VW Passat stopped in the emergency lane. It was like it wasn't there, and then it was. But apparently it had been, for several minutes. I didn't see it parked at the crest.

Six chin stitches and one hopefully-not-broken-but-maybe-it-is Roubaix later, I am an idiot.

[Vientomas]

Holy *****! Glad you are relatively OK. I suspect it could have been worse.

[rice rocket]

Impressive. :beer:

[itsflantastic]

Oooof! I'm so sorry to hear this.
I hope the driver was understanding? Glad you are OK.

[William]

Dude!!! Are you ok??

I hope so. On a lighter note, it's no longer called "Pulling a Phinney". It's now called "Pulling an Elefantino"!! :D ;)





William

[ultraman6970]

Dude! now you know why i stopped using all those things many years ago, hope you were not listening music as many does. Ride and listening music is the most dangerous thing to do ever.

Hope you feel better, get well soon.

[Idris Icabod]

I've done this on my commute home, road is pancake flat so I didn't look up for quite a while. You are very lucky, I've personnally known 2 cyclists die from injuries sustained from hitting parked cars.

[biker72]

Glad it's just stiches. It could have been a concussion.
Good luck on your speedy recovery..

[wooly]

DAMN Elefantino. Glad you were not seriously injured. By the look of the windshield, you easily could've been.

I'm sure your adrenalin was pumping right after it happened!

[1happygirl]

Dude! I'm sorry, and I'm glad you are gonna be okay.

And I was just gonna PM you for a ride report on the Roubaix :rolleyes:

[Louis]

Hmmm, isn't it usually the driver who is telling this story?

Glad you're well.

[jr59]

As long as you are ok!!!

Then it's funny as all get out.

So as long as you are not injured, YES you are an idiot!

[Len J]

Yikes.

Heal well.....that could have been much worse.

Len

P's...if you are an idiot I guess I am too.....only reason that hasn't happened to me is luck.

[Nil Else]

:eek: Sometimes even monkeys fall out of tree... but it's not easy to mind that all the time. Glad you were well enough to take the pic (I'm assuming). Hope you feel better soon. :beer:

[djg]

Hi Mike.

The first step is recognizing that there's a problem.

The second step is recognizing solid objects in your path.

Heal up sound and soon man.

[norcalbiker]

Holy *****!

This is exacty what I said after reading it. :eek:


Glad to hear you're okay.

[thinpin]

I work in Trauma OR. See about one of these each month. I wince then laugh. Most "pilots" laugh too. One cried cause he'd wrecked his new Pinarello.
Rest up and get back on the bike ASAP and as the song says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGakELOK5ZE

[dnades]

Wow. Glad you are ok. Wow. Ouch. Hope your Roubaix is ok.

[false_Aest]

I am laughing out loud...

only because you're ok.

[CNY rider]

I am laughing out loud...

only because you're ok.

Agree.
You have a great story to tell now at family gatherings, cocktail parties etc.
"One in a million shot!"

[rustychisel]

sing with me - "Pull up to the bumper, baby".

and stop doing repeats, they're dangerous. Glad you're okay.

[pdmtong]

very glad you are ok. could this be a forum first? I;m not saying anything, since I can see how this could happen

[Don49]

You could save your pride and just claim the VW backed into you at a high rate of speed. :)

[Bud_E]

Impressive - and I'm glad you're okay. With the speed I attain these days going uphill I would have just bounced off the glass.

[Ken Robb]

20+ years ago a serious cyclist in San Diego was doing laps around Fiesta Island and on his second lap he rode head-down into an RV that hadn't been there on his first lap. He broke his neck and ended up a paraplegic. You were lucky. :beer:

[Bruce K]

I could put you in contact with Davis Phinney and you could compare war stories.

I believe he sustained cuts requiring over 100 stitches mostly due to the fact that when he did his through the back window flying act they weren't using safety glass except in the windshields as it was new technology.

Glad to hear that you're ok.

BK

[sbparker31]

First, glad you are ok.

But if it makes you feel any better, many years ago I was riding down a flat street, head down (I too am a confirmed idiot) and when I looked up, I was heading right into a parked car. Instinctively, I jerked the handlebars to the left, and while I avoided the car, my front wheel instantly taco'ed. I went over the handlebars, but strangly enough, the only part of my body that hit the road was my right forearm -- my momentum rolled me head over heals and I landed on my feet, running, still holding the handlebars. I have a scar on my forearm to this day to remind be to ride with my head up.

[gasman]

Oh man I am so glad it wasn't any worse ! Heal up soon.

[oldman]

Damn! Looks like you really came out lucky.

You aren't the only one. Four weeks ago I broke my collar bone. Panic stop when I thought a gate was open but it wasn't and grabbed to much front brake and went over the handlebars.

[MattTuck]

Hang in there man! Girls dig stitches.

[Wilkinson4]

Elephinnyino? Damn dude, that is awesome and scary as sh!$ at the same time. Be safe and heal well.

mIKE

[BumbleBeeDave]

I always had you pegged as an overachiever but this is a bit over the top. :D

Seriously, though, glad you are in as good a shape as you still are. This could have been REALLY bad news . . .

BBD

[ergott]

In high school I hit a Camaro when I wasn't paying attention. Minor.

A few years ago I was finishing off a real hard effort. I hit a heat shield from a catalytic converter in the road. Computer says I was doing over 24 miles an hour. I flipped and separated my shoulder with a bunch or road rash to boot.

Glad you are somewhat ok.

[wc1934]

Whoa - man, glad that you are ok - It is friggen hard to break a windshield - thank goodness for helmets - stay in tune with your body - don't ignore any new pain- get well soon.

[Hawker]

Wow! Glad you're OK. Don't suppose there is any video? ;)

[AngryScientist]

youch!
glad to hear you've done no permanent damage, thanks for sharing too, its a good reminder to the rest of us to pay attention to everything.

heal up dude. :beer:

[93legendti]

Holy crap! I can't believe you hit a car and you weren't hurt worse..,

I'm glad stitches were the worst of it. Stitches really suck (at least they did the last time I got 'em 20 yrs ago).


Feel better. Heal up fast!

[sokyroadie]

Glad you survived relatively unscathed. I have to ask, what did YOUR insurance agent say? :no:

[Jason E]

Medic - "Ok, sir, just stay still. Stay on the ground we are going to check you out".

Elephantino - [fidgeting with his back pocket]

Medic - "SIR, I need you to RELAX. Please stop moving, we need to get you in the Ambulance and to the Hospital"

Elephantino - [pulling cell phone free from back pocket and thrusting it to the Medic] "...[incoherent]..."

Medic - "Sir, is there someone you want me to call? Who do you want me to call, sir?"

Elephantino - [finally clearing his throat] "Yeah, yeah, call my family, but first, can you get a pic of the back of the Passat for me? I have to post it to the Forum tonight. The guys are going to love this... Here, let me show you how to upload it afterwards to my account..."

Glad you are [generally] alright! :D

[Ti Designs]

The trick is to draft the moving cars...

[rounder]

Bad crash. Poor VW. Best wishes. Also, keep an eye out for parked cars.

[Dekonick]

Medic - "Ok, sir, just stay still. Stay on the ground we are going to check you out".

Elephantino - [fidgeting with his back pocket]

Medic - "SIR, I need you to RELAX. Please stop moving, we need to get you in the Ambulance and to the Hospital"

Elephantino - [pulling cell phone free from back pocket and thrusting it to the Medic] "...[incoherent]..."

Medic - "Sir, is there someone you want me to call? Who do you want me to call, sir?"

Elephantino - [finally clearing his throat] "Yeah, yeah, call my family, but first, can you get a pic of the back of the Passat for me? I have to post it to the Forum tonight. The guys are going to love this... Here, let me show you how to upload it afterwards to my account..."

Glad you are [generally] alright! :D

Love it!

Glad you are ok. Hope the medics took good care of you...

Imagine how hard the glass would be with out a helmet!

To quote an ANGRY SCIENTIST... F=MA; KE= 1/2MV^2... in other words OUCH!

[kelowen12]

Don't feel bad-it happens alot. On a morning hammerfest, some one ran into minivan at top of small hill. He put a dent in the back door.

[Lifelover]

It's the number one all time Bumper sticker for a reason.


I'm glad to hear you are ok. We all have our idiot moments!

I commend you for being able to go public with yours.

There is a lesson to be learned in here some where next time the Forum goes on a witch hunt because some distracted driver mows down a cyclist.

[Fixed]

youch!
glad to hear you've done no permanent damage, thanks for sharing too, its a good reminder to the rest of us to pay attention to everything.

heal up dude. :beer:
+1 bro you gave that car a nice one though
cheers

[RPS]

Glad it wasn’t the car delivering the blow.
Hope you recover soon.

[regularguy412]

Buddy of mine did the exact same thing a couple of years ago. Very similar situation,, timetrialing in the drops up and over an overpass. Crashed into a derelict car's rear window. Broke his LOOK carbon frame, but he was (mostly) uninjured. He's now building steel frames for himself (he he).

Glad you're OK!

Mike in AR:beer:

[Nil Else]

Btw there isn't more to the story, is there?
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6751/3577874169389d94a0cfcop.jpg (http://img843.imageshack.us/i/3577874169389d94a0cfcop.jpg/)

[chuckroast]

Time for you to buy a lottery ticket because you are one lucky dude....heal fast and well.

[Polyglot]

What is an emergency lane? Perhaps a paved shoulder? Was the car parked legally?

[SoCalSteve]

Mike,

Glad you are ok!

I have an extra bike ( can you say Hors Cat ) that I can send to you if the new bike is broken...just sign over the insurance check to me.... :D

Again, so happy to hear you are doing well and that you are laughing about it!

Steve

[SEABREEZE]

Ummmmm, looking at the polar...

It takes a big man to post such a post, my hats off to you..

Glad your still with us, and no after effects occur.

This bring to mind the present commercial running of the kid betting the VW
Pinata that wont break... VW tough....NOT...... just as Mike

[roguedog]

OOF.

William's bane is squirrels and yours is apparently.. PASSATs?

Heal well. Glad to hear all you needed was stitches.

[thinpin]

By the way, did any see you......?

[troymac]

Im glad your ok ... heal quickly. The bikes replaceable and your not. :hello:

[alancw3]

mike- sorry to hear about the accident. you are fortunatel though that it was not worse. i had a similiar accident about fifty years ago but luckily didn't break the rear windshield just wiped out my bike. i find as i get older (63 now) that when i sometimes do what i would normally have considered stupid or forgetful things that i view it just part of the aging process. anyway, again glad you were not seriously hurt. bikes can be replaced!

[indyrider]

Glad youre OK!

Reminds me of when I was 12 or 13, JRA on my Redline when I did the exact same thing but just landed on the trunk. No one saw it happen (to my knowledge), nothing was broken (me or car), but my young ego took a beating. Note to self, dont put your head down and drop lugi's on your front tire ever again :beer:

[cdn_bacon]

Get well very soon...hope the bike made it as well :)

[RABikes2]

WHOA, Mike ... glad you are relatively okay. Heal quickly friend!

Would you like the phone number (again) for the chiropractor I recommended to you? This would be a good time to start with her. :help:

Feel better!

RA

[rugbysecondrow]

Did you HR go up or down after the crash?

Thanks for the heads up and am glad you can tell the story. Heal up!

[Bob Loblaw]

DOH!

Done it myself when I was a junior, in a race no less. Luckily, it's the kind of mistake you only make once. :beer:

Heal fast.

BL

[ultraman6970]

Sure u learn the lesson, because if you are not lucky you could end up in a coffin.

DOH!

Done it myself when I was a junior, in a race no less. Luckily, it's the kind of mistake you only make once. :beer:

Heal fast.

BL

[bumknees]

sorry to hear about your mishap. Hope you feel better soon!

[pjm]

Safety glass was a great invention. Hope you recover quickly, E. :)

[Nooch]

This bring to mind the present commercial running of the kid betting the VW
Pinata that wont break... VW tough....NOT...... just as Mike

I'd venture to say the Passat was plenty tough... Glass, on the other hand, is not.

Glad to hear you're okay... Curious though, what part of you went thru the glass?

[mnoble485]

I knew ther was a reason I don't do hill repeats.(I am lucky to get up the hill the first time.) Thanks for validating my flawed thinking. You have gigen new meaning to the phrase "Hitting the wall".

Glad you are OK Now stay off those Florida hills.

Mike

[zap]

Man.................heal well and fast.

[torquer]

I could put you in contact with Davis Phinney and you could compare war stories.

I believe he sustained cuts requiring over 100 stitches mostly due to the fact that when he did his through the back window flying act they weren't using safety glass except in the windshields as it was new technology.

Glad to hear that you're ok
BK
.http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZDkoshWN12dbrlTus2FPG7HunkhTMV 8QHXGkOpQQk58mWcM1ziw
I started to type "Davis Phinney" in the Google images search box, and "Davis Phinney crash" was the second listed suggestion.
First image that comes up is really gory; 100 stitches sounds about right.
Looks like the geo of that Serotta Huffy got altered, too.

[Elefantino]

This was my desk "decorated" this morning by my colleagues. The broken auto glass by the keyboard was a nice touch.

Thanks for all the responses. The idiot is doing fine. So is the Roubaix. LBS just called and said the lower bearing was toast, but the fork and head tube are perfect. So is the apparently bulletproof front wheel. (Thanks again, Marcus!)

It's going to end up costing me about $300 to replace the woman's tinted back window. Oh well. Small price to pay for being able to give everyone a good laugh.

My only real regret is the nice woman who saw it and stopped to call 911. She came over to see if I was OK, saw me bleeding like a faucet and ... promptly got sick.

[dana_e]

garbage cans and parked cars, I have fear of

I am used to moving cars or motorcycles buzzing me close

I have done a bunch of miles over the last 25 years and have been lucky and have not hit much

I did hit a car that passed me, pulled over and then u-turned, nice

[sbparker31]

The one and only time I was hit by a car I was riding down a slight hill at about 15 mph in the bike lane, when a car slightly in front of me turned right suddenly into a driveway. The front end of the car hit my hip just as I was riding past. The force of the blow knocked the rear of the bike to about a 45 degree angle off center, but the front wheel remained straight and on the ground. Because I had quite a bit of forward momentum, when the rear wheel hit the ground and regained traction, I remained upright still riding. All I could do was turn around and shake my fist as I kept on going.

That was pretty lucky. If I was just a split second later, I would have t-boned her.

[thwart]

This was my desk "decorated" this morning by my colleagues. The broken auto glass by the keyboard was a nice touch.


Gee, that's almost worth going through it again someday... not.

Glad you're OK, and back at work. Well, not the work part.

[Ti Designs]

garbage cans and parked cars, I have fear of

Yeh, those garbage cans are not to be trusted. I headed out one early morning on a very windy day, only got a few houses down when a garbage can came rolling across the street and took me out. I got up, looked down the street only to see a half dozen of his friends also rolling around in the street waiting for me... By far the funniest was when I was riding home, just two blocks from my house when a toilet came flying our of a second story window of a house under construction. It hit the lawn and started to roll down the hill. I was riding along, I could see this rolling toilet but somehow it just failed to register that I was about to be taken out - there are just some things the brain rejects. Despite this experience, I do not fear toilets.

[67-59]

Rolling toilets? Great - another road hazard to worry about. :D

Glad to hear that your injuries weren't worse, Elefantino. And thanks for the reminder....

[Hawker]

The trick is to draft the moving cars...


That IS good. :)

[sc53]

Can you imagine the posts about this on the VW Passat forum? "Stupid distracted cyclist plowed into me this morning!" "Why aren't the police ever around when these scofflaws are out on the roads??" "I'll bet he was texting, the idiot!" "You are so lucky it was only your rear window, you'd better have the dealership check out your chassis alignment" etc etc.
So glad you are OK! Guess you took it on the chin, eh?

[christian]

Glad you're ok.

I was in a 10k about a month ago when one of the runners ran into the back of an enclosed 6x14 foot Haulmark trailer parked at the side of the road. Sounded like a bass drum.

[wc1934]

[QUOTE=Ti Designs] By far the funniest was when I was riding home, just two blocks from my house when a toilet came flying our of a second story window of a house under construction. It hit the lawn and started to roll down the hill..[/QUOTE

of course, sh*t rolls downhill -

[Clydesdale]

I think you should tell people that the car was doing 30mph and you just couldn't get to the brakes fast enough when you caught it! Much better story. Then mutter something about how slow moving cars should be using some kind of path.

Seriously - glad you are ok. Anything head on is a scary crash. Heal fast.

[Nil Else]

I have fear of static stuff

What is the medical term for the condition?

[palincss]

I've done this on my commute home, road is pancake flat so I didn't look up for quite a while. You are very lucky, I've personnally known 2 cyclists die from injuries sustained from hitting parked cars.

Years and years ago I knew someone who rode right into the back of a garbage truck. Totaled the bike, and he ended up in the hopper with the garbage.

[dnades]

nice crew you work with - glad to hear that this will all be a fond memory someday.

[Fivethumbs]

That looks really gnarly. BTW, Levi wants to know if you were wearing your Road ID.

[soulspinner]

Just glad yer OK.