My commute/training ride was good. I was having a blast with most of the ride, but had two close encounters. The first close encounter included two minvans, a curb and me. I was on the shoulder and had taken the lane to go past a curb that abruptly intrudes the shoulder. A lady in the left turn lane for opposing traffic was patiently waiting her turn when a grey minivan being driven by a woman on her cell phone passed me on my left with very little space between me and her van!

The second close call was the near blow out at about mile 17. i don't know what I hit, but I heard a loud pop and immediately got off to check the tires. Sure enough, I found a 1.5'ish inch long gash in my tire that stopped at the threads. The gash ran front to back on the tire. To the right of the gash, an office staple was still in the tire, which I promptly plucked out. The tire was holding pressure, so I decided to proceed on with the ride, dealing with a flat later on if it occurs. Well, the tube held air for about 13 or so miles before I noticed that it was getting low, which is about when I arrived at work! Pretty dang close. To make matters worse, I didn't realize how vulnerable I was to getting stranded, but I suddenly recalled what happened to me last year. After getting my CO2 inflater, I did a training run by treating a good tire and tube as a blow out (I let the air out). I took the tube completely out like I would for a tube change/patch, and then reinstalled it and inflated. My CO2 couldn't get me even close to 90 PSI (27 x 1 1/4"). I also didn't have anything to boot with, so I would have been stranded this morning.

I'm so glad I made it to work! The weather was also very beautiful.

flyingcadet