Taken out by a deer...

Posted by Robert Bishop at 1/13/2008 12:00 PM and is filed under Cycling
italy / italian / cycling — lotojaI never crashed while riding my bike in Italy. However, the last Lotoja before moving to Italy was a different story. Lotoja is a one-day 200 mile bike race that spans Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. It was my third year so I knew what was in store. At mile 80, I had been traveling in a group of about 30 cyclists at a consistent speed of 30mph when I decided to let them go. I had been sick a couple of days prior to the race and I just didn't have it. When the group was about 100 feet in front of me (I had slowed to about 28mph), without warning a deer darted into the road and I t-boned it. My bike stopped and I did an upside-down Superman over the deer and skidded to a stop on my back. It wouldn't have been so bad but they had just re-slagged the road (chip-seal which is basically tar with gravel on top) so it was like landing on cut glass.

After I came to a stop, several people got out of their cars and ran over to see if I was OK. One guy started checking me for broken bones (I didn't think anything was broken). After he was relatively sure that no bones were broken he said, "I don't mean to be insensitive but, man, THAT WAS AWESOME! I saw the deer coming down the hillside and thought it was going to hit that pack of cyclists so I got out my video camera but before I could turn it on, it ran right into you. I wish I could have got that on tape because tonight you'd be on every TV news program across the country." I asked, "so, what happened to the deer?" and he replied, "it got right up and ran off." So now I have a record as the only cyclist ever taken out of the Lotoja race by a deer... I'd prefer to have finished.

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