Update on my recovery.

[arielmoon]

I wonder if a bike clinic could teach dog avoidance techniques? I did a search for FL, and found this list:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/6213/fl.htm

I don't know if this is at all helpful, if any of these places are even near you, but I hope it is

I was hit by a car door when I was a teenager, so I know how hard it is to get back on the bike. At least in my case, avoiding a car door was easy to learn. They take up so much room, and you don't ride in that zone. But with a dog, I don't know....is there anything you could have done to avoid it? Would some kind of repellant have helped, or where you were on the road, or speed?

If there was nothing you could do, then can you ride where there are no loose dogs? Do you have a safe route until you get your mojo back?

I'm really glad to hear you're so much better! You rock!

Thanks for researching that! Only one in my area and I have never heard of it. I have talked to the gang at the bike shop since I ride with them quite a bit and I think it would be worthwhile to try and talk to some of the dog owners along the Monday afternoon ride route. Other than that I dont know.

Unfortunately, in this case I never saw the dog until he was about 5 feet from me. I remember diving for the drops/ brakes but I dont think I even had time for that. He had misjudged his angle and/or my speed (18-19mph) so badly that he slammed into my front wheel. I can clearly recall the moment when he realized his mistake! There would have been no time to reach for pepper spray or anything else people have suggested to me. I know the ideal thing is to speed up but in this case I think he would have hit me in the middle or the back tire at the very least. Any other dog (including this same one) has come from behind more or less where speeding up did help.