turning a blind eye

[Crankin]

I ask anyone who is by the side of the road, unless they are obviously fixing something themselves or on the phone. Not that I could help with much, but I do have basic flat changing stuff and extra tubes.
Last fall I was riding with one friend; I came to a stop sign and made a left. After I turned, I stopped to wait for my friend. At the intersection there was one of those New England type triangle intersections, with a small "green" in the middle. Two guys, around my age were lying/sitting on the grass, with their bikes laying on their sides. I asked if they needed help, they waved me off, without even a thank you. After my friend got there, and I was taking off some layers, I noticed one of the guys' wives driving up in a Cadillac Escalade, and putting their bikes in the car. I think they just were tired of the hills around here!

[nscrbug]

I will always slowdown and ask if help is needed...usually I get a "thumbs up" and continue on my way. Was on a ride with a friend not too long ago. Two guys on tri bikes pulled out from a side road and were in front of us...about 100 or so meters up ahead. Suddenly, I see the guy in front violently thrash his bike from side to side, before slamming into the street. I just screamed out loud "Oh my God, that guy just went down". Nearly 2 seconds later, the guy behind him rode right into him, and also went down. My friend and I stopped and jumped off our bikes to help. The 2 guys were hurt pretty badly...lots of road rash and one of them was holding his collarbone, which I presumed was broken. Lucky for them, they crashed right in front of a local fire department...so the EMT's literally just ran down the driveway to get to them. I was so freaked out by the whole incident, that my hands were shaking and I actually had trouble steering my bike for awhile. Turned out that the first guy went down because a bee flew into his shirt and he was trying to swat it away.

I crashed my own bike and went down on the street in front of some busineses, and several people came rushing over to help. One offered bandages and a first aid kit. Aside from a few scrapes, I was okay and my DH was with me at the time. But it was nice to get the offers of help.