Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
I guess Felix Baur, Burry Stander, Carla Swart, Frank Guinn, Peter Gunther, Adrian Buttafocchi,
Junior Heffernan and many other pro racers who all died being hit by cars, trucks, and motorcycles just don't have as good of skills as you have. Thank you for blessing us with your superior and god like abilities on a bike.
Being a pro bike racer does not automatically equate to being a great bike handler. In my short time racing with the professionals, there were several riders who were well-known as dangerous guys to be around. Of course, if we are to insist that every pro bike racer is a bike handling wizard, then that makes me a bike handling wizard, doesn't it? Or would you argue that bike handling skills disappear when the license expires?
At any rate, the whole "godlike abilities" thing is a red herring. Nobody is claiming that you have to have super-human abilities in order to avoid a fall. Some of us are just trying to point out that competent bike handlers don't have to fall off their bikes and land on their heads all the time. The fact that some of you equate that ability to "god-like powers" is actually kind of sad.
Finally, the riders listed (with the exception of the two guys who lived and died a hundred years ago)
were wearing helmets when they were killed. Aside from the obvious idiocy of using dead bike riders as an argument for wearing helmets, it illustrates a point some of us have been trying to make for years: bicycle helmets are not adequate protection from motor vehicles and anyone who believes otherwise is being dangerously foolish. The only way for a cyclist to avoid danger from motor vehicles is to stay completely away from them.