Quote Originally Posted by crazycanuck View Post
v-i would love to hear your farmer story..what's up with your knee again?

c
I did something to my knee on the Knoxville Double - Sept. 22. It doesn't really hurt, but when I pedal or walk around a lot, it feels like a ratchet. It's slowly getting better. So I am not riding very hard. Hills bother it much more than flats, and I'm talking any little hill.

But I know I need to start training. My goal ride is at the end of April. So Sunday, I headed out with the intent of doing about 35 miles, most of which are flat, about 1800 feet of climbing overall. There are, however, two pretty steep, short hills in the middle of the ride.

The first little hill, I realize my knee still isn't ready for the steep ones later on. So in my head I start reconfiguring my route.

We have a road that has been closed to all but local traffic. Since there is only one house on it and a lot of cows, it doesn't get much traffic. My plan is to do it as an out and back twice.

As I was nearing the end of that closed road, on a long, half mile + straightaway, there was a truck loaded with hay, coming at me. Even though the road is closed, I still ride in my lane. But this guy, he's in the middle of the road and he keeps moving ever closer to my side of the road. I'm wearing a bright orange jersey and a bright yellow vest. There is no way he could not have seen me. He's not driving very fast, so I have lots of time to watch him. Eventually, he's totally on my side of the road. About fifty feet from me, he moves back toward his side, but still in the middle.

All I can think is either he had target fixation or he was trying to scare me. I decided I would rather ride with more well behaved traffic, so at the end of the road instead of turning around as I had planned, I went back a different way.

Of course later on, I also had a woman parked on the side of the road decide to pull out right in front of me...just as I predicted she would. No, she did not use a signal light or look over her shoulder. People can be so lame.

V.