camwyn | (no subject)

Tried to do 30 miles today in preparation for the Five Boro Tour. Did 25. mostly because I stopped at the Sports Authority on 19th and 6th (or whatever the cross street is, I no longer remember) to get a new Camelbak reservoir for tomorrow. Spent a little extra time deciding to get a whole new backpack, one that's actually designed for hikers rather than bikers- I prefer having the option of cargo space to trying frantically to fit my wallet/keys/cell phone/map/spare bottle/pair of socks/patch kit/tube/hand pump into what little space the model supposedly designed to fit women's torsos has. Spent a little more extra time cutting the tags off and getting the other plastic bits off so I could wear it home instead of toting a bag.

And that would be when the woman came running into the store to ask if anyone had paper towels, because there was an awful lot of blood...

Bicycle vs. pedestrian. Pedestrian was shocked and wobbly but insisted she was okay and didn't want to go to the hospital. Bicyclist, not so much... paper towel woman was right. There was blood. A lot of it. Bright red, too, not the color you get when it wells up on a small cut on your finger or something. Came from under the cyclist's head- he was sprawled on his back on the street, a good several yards away from his bike. The cops showed up within seconds, I don't know if it was a patrol or if they'd been phoned as soon as the accident happened or what, but they were literally there before I could ask if anyone needed a cell phone to call an ambulance. Cyclist was at least partially conscious, I saw him moving a few times, at one point lifting his whole torso off the ground (someone was holding his head when he did that).

The cops eventually said that if you weren't a witness to the accident you should leave, which is about what I was waiting for. It's a bit awkward to say 'excuse me, ma'am, I realize you've been very badly traumatized by being hit by a man on a bike but you're kind of sitting directly in front of my bicycle and I have to unchain it and leave now'. I did offer her my chocolate energy bar, though- 'I realize this is going to sound kind of stupid, but would chocolate help at all?' was how I put it. At least she laughed...

I don't think I've ever been quite so grateful to have decided to wear my helmet instead of my baseball cap in my life. After that I just made my way down to Ninth and got on the PATH there. Didn't really feel like biking much more today after that.