Last Saturday I was on a five hour bike ride. How did I know it would be that long? Simple. I was training a client who needed to do at least five hours for a triathlon coming up. I guess I must be a pretty boring guys because she invited three friends to come along. One of her friends was a good friend of mine also, Karen. She’s actually helped me with this site. Thanks, Karen. The other two guys, Scott and Dave, were knew to me, though I have met Dave a time before. He’s more of a runner. As with most long rides, we started off slowly. This is usually when everyone’s chatting it up. Caroline and I seem to chat through the entire ride no matter how hard we’re going. I think it’s an Italian thing. At one point, while still rolling easy, we slowly rolled through a stop sign without completely stopping. We didn’t notice the cop car right behind us. All of a sudden, our mild chatter was interrupted by a booming voice over a loud speaker: “Cyclists, please pull over.” It must be a human thing, but for a moment I thought about taking off. But it would have caused the world’s slowest chase. I didn’t though. We all pulled over. We happened to be about a thousand yards down the road from where a guy, James Laing, was killed about two weeks ago. That’s when I decided to drop the F-bomb. I said to the officer, “So you’re going to stop four cyclists easing through a stop sign and you couldn’t stop the fucking drunk who killed one of us two weeks ago?” Scott the attorney told me dropping the F-bomb probably wasn’t my smartest move. I told you that to tell you this. When the officer asked for our ID’s, it turns out I was the only one carrying an ID. What officers normally do in that situation is take your name and date of birth, so they can look you up that way. That won’t help in the event where you might get hit and you’re not carrying identification. The officer saw fit to let us go with a warning. Once we were free and clear, I asked all three people if they had ID. No one did. I think one of the guys had a Road ID. He had the same type of tag that I wear. It’s a dog tag for cyclists. We’ve talked about this here in the past on this site. I don’t leave home without it. I’d normally say that’s a good slogan, but I think it’s already taken. The information that we should glean from this is two things. I’m a guy who promotes safe cycling. Yet, it wasn’t beyond me to run the stop sign. After all, I’m human and make mistakes like everyone else. I made a promise to myself to be more cautious and try to obey all traffic signs and signals. The second piece of information, always carry a license or some form of picture ID. It’s also a good idea if you’re a runner, cyclist, motorcyclist or kayaker. If you’re doing something that can cause you to end up unconscious at a higher percentage than your daily routine, wearing a dog tag or wrist band is a good idea. Once again, the link that we’re affiliated with is Road ID. It’s inexpensive and everyone should have one. Unless your name happens to be Sophia Loren.
