The Idaho stop is the common name for laws that allow bicyclists to treat a stop sign as a yield sign, and a red light as a stop sign. It first became law in Idaho in 1982, but was not adopted elsewhere until Delaware adopted...
I ride bikes too and for a while felt invincible. Stupidly took a a downhill in wet conditions and wiped out dislocating my shoulder. It also affected my sleep for a few months. Pro runners should not be on the roads on a bicycle it's one of the most dangerous activities you can do imo especially with stupid drivers ( I wad hit by a lady as a teenager)
It can happen fast, especially if you hit your brakes while cornering on a wet road.
I just don't think they're gonna go outside & ride if it's bad out. That's where they can choose to be smart. I do think there's some balance to this conversation. I hear what the cat1 guy + plenty others are saying. Ok, I have my pro triathlon license. I also hear what the person going back & forth with them is saying & largely agree. They're not racing bikes. They're not riding their bikes in training like they're going to go race bikes. They might have expensive rides but they're soft pedaling for an easy hour plus. Cars are still a threat. That says more about what we value that we're saying they shouldn't ride because it's unsafe. The risk will never be zero but these guys can soft pedal an hour outside somewhere mostly remote. They're not in a major city hammering interval workouts at a high commute time. They're riding easy & remote at a time when people are at work. It's the safest way to do it. Heat training can be a big benefit to them. There's some risk/reward to do there as well. I just think the conversation is getting away from the chat. They're not riding outside very often. A lot of their heat training stuff is done indoors. When they are riding outside they're not hammering workouts/taking sharp corners/bombing descents. They don't really have those skills & won't without riding a ton more.
I also cycle as a form of cross training so I do know the benefits of doing it but these guys, as pros,are risking some MAJOR risk to be riding on these roads w ppl texting, drunk, not paying attention or they themselves just crashing. ESP a reigning Olympic champ in one of the most prestigious events.
Look no further than Lukas Verzbikas. Or Gwen Jorgensen.
i just don’t get how they nor their coaches and agents and sponsers aren’t telling them this isn’t a good idea. Until they are Retired they should be in the trainer/ rollers or peloton.
I've ridden more than tens of thousands of miles on bikes over many many years and never been hit by a vehicle or broken a bone-I have crashed twice in races (once when my tube exploded in a turn in a crit and once in the rain when someone just took out my front wheel) and once in Texas on a group ride when someone fell in front of me in a turn. Those ATX roads can be slippery when it's humid.
Definitely one of the reasons I mostly run and xc ski now and don't do bike races anymore.
Cycling can be done very safely. But it depends on your judgment/choice of where and when you ride, your skill, and how conservatively/defensively you ride, and if you ride by yourself or in a small group vs. do any racing in a pack.
I've ridden my bikes for 50 years with zero notable injuries and road rash only one time (loose gravel turn from a chipseal job that wasn't cleaned up properly in 9th grade), which is a bit better than I can say for my running. I commuted by bike to elementary school, junior high, high school, college (walked to classes, but didn't have a car and biked for away from campus uses like grocery runs), and most of my work life. I wanted to be a pro cyclist as a kid, and trained a lot on the roads from junior high through first year of college (ran two years in high school, but biked around that, switched back to running after first year because bike frame broke and it took a year to get it warrantied). For the past 26 years, I've only touched my road bike maybe two times (it's at my parent's house thousands of miles away), and only ride my old mountain bike.
Here are the things I do to keep things safe.
- I've stayed off most roads since cell phones and distracted driving became more of a problem. Where I grew up had good riding on back roads that I would still feel safe on. Where I live now, the road riding isn't great, but the trails are great. No reason for me to get on the roads here except some quiet roads as connectors or a bit of exploring. Gravel riding is popular now because it allow cyclists to get on safer roads if they live in a place with a lot of access to that.
- On roads, I always rode defensively. Even if I have the right of way, I don't go through intersections carefree, I make sure there isn't a car that might blow through a stop sign or red light first. I also knew all the theory of safe riding in traffic from magazine articles (based on Forester's Effective Cycling book), and practiced that as necessary.
- On trails, I ride within myself, do only cross country, but not cross country racing. I'm on mtbr, and I've literally the person with the least injury history (zero on mountain bikes) and least frequent crashes on that site because I'm not downhill focused and I don't race cross country. I'm skilled/aware of how things can trip bikes up from biking on dirt since I was a kid, so I just don't crash when I'm conservative, which I always am.
- Helmets are an extra factor that can help, but their effectiveness can be overrated if they give you overconfidence. They don't prevent you from dying when you are run over by a distracted driver. I grew up before the helmet era. I got a Bell V1-Pro helmet in high school, and used it for training and racing and later road riding. I don't use one on my mountain bike because of the way I ride, I'm as safe as a bike commuter in Amsterdam, or me on my cross country skis on the same trails in the winter. If you see me with my helmet on my mountain bike, I'm doing something risker than my normal like trying to push a downhill, so I'm going to be actually at a higher risk of injury. This seems contrary to how 99% of mountain biker ride, so wear your helmet because you don't ride like me (though it is true/studies have shown that riders with helmets take greater risks. . . and riders with helmets are more likely to be hit by cars because drivers give helmetless riders more space when passing).
- Helmets are an extra factor that can help, but their effectiveness can be overrated if they give you overconfidence. They don't prevent you from dying when you are run over by a distracted driver.
They also don't prevent mountain bikers from paralyzing (and sometimes killing) themselves. So many unskilled (and some skilled) mountain bikers do that by landing on their heads "dead sailoring" jumps and breaking their necks. Don't do jumps and you can avoid the biggest severe injury risk in mountain biking. If you do jumps, progress very gradually, don't be overconfident just because you can hit a few jumps without crashing.
Ride a 50+ pound full suspension all mountain EBike. Only use the motor for rest/recovery. My Yamaha Moro ebike is the safest bike I have ever ridden. Basically setup as a motard ebike.
Raccoons are nocturnal. So unless it’s rabid or road kill. In which you should see its dead carcass with plenty of time and space. Now if you’re riding at night you’re an idiot.
Cool I'll let the raccoon know the next time I see it on my 5pm evening commute.
So you see the same raccoon at the same time everyday plotting to run in front of you to cause you to fall off your bike? Good the know the raccoon keeps an autistic level routine and obsession to this one thing.
Are hocker and teare bike racing? Gwen crashed in a race, where you are riding 1" apart from each other at 26-30mph. Lucas crashed while training for a bike race, descending a hill aggressively on s group ride.
Cool I'll let the raccoon know the next time I see it on my 5pm evening commute.
So you see the same raccoon at the same time everyday plotting to run in front of you to cause you to fall off your bike? Good the know the raccoon keeps an autistic level routine and obsession to this one thing.
