Old 06-25-08, 01:52 PM
  #18  
Captain Slow
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That bit of wire you have there is probably what's left over from a power pole ground. Crews are pretty good about picking up their scraps, but pobody's nerfect.

Couple of years ago, I was 88 miles into a century, and I ran over a scrap of television cable that was lying across the roadside... Didn't even think about it... Until it flipped up into my front wheel, spun 'round & 'round, and the exposed foil shield on one end of it sliced me across my right wrist. I brushed the wire aside, and it fell in the clear... I kept going.

Few minutes later, I noticed that my right glove was squishy-wet. I looked at it... yup, soaked with blood. That scrap of wire had nicked a vein. It wasn't a gusher, but it was bleeding pretty steady. I stopped and rooted around in my rack duffel. I found a plastic grocery bag, which I tied around my wrist...

... And finished my ride. Way I figured, It'd take me at least another ten miles to get to medical help, so why not finish the century? So, 105 miles all up, toss on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt, drive to the Urgent Care Clinic, couple of stitches, and ba-da-boom, back home to eat something good and peruse the newspaper.

Doctor yelled at me about my nonchalance, but he wasn't a cyclist... his opinion didn't count.

The moral? Watch out for harmless looking scraps of wire... they bite.
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