Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Wanna fight?






When was the last time some one told you seriously they were gonna kick your ass? Its been along time for me but it happened tonight. Let me explain.
Its Tuesday night which means time for the weekly Tuesday Night Crits. Its been several years since I pedaled out to check out the race action so when two of the guys from the shop suited up to ride over and race I hopped on my bike and followed along. I forgotten where the race was and the ride over put the hurting on me a bit, no biggie I can use the extra miles. We got to the crit and Chris (the ride promoter) asked if I wanted to make an easy $10 by being the corner marshal for a big busy corner. The crit takes place in an industrial park in Leewood. Its been going on for years and the agreement with the city is that is OK to have the crit as long as we are not stopping traffic. We can ask them to yield but are not supposed to stop them. This area is fairly busy with semi trucks some of them pulling two to three trailers. I corner marshaled for the A race and there wasn't much to do. The big semis came by while the racers were on the other side of the course. The A race guys are fast... real fast. These guys looked like they were tearing it up. It was a good race with a sprint finish. Good times. After a 10 minute break the B race started. After they got rolling Chris' wife came up to my corner to take over for me and said I could take off if I wanted. I should have. The B group came around the corner and started the short high speed climb to our corner about the same time that two semis pulling triple trailers came around the other corner and began heading our direction. Everyone was on course to end up at the intersection at the same time. Not good. The corner marshal steeped out and waving her arms yelled for the racers to stop. Some did but several didn't and the semi locked up its breaks. Semis pulling triple trailers don't stop on a dime and the driver was not happy, nor was the corner marshal. The truck driver starts yelling at me about how we are supposed to yield to them. I think my comment to him at this point (one of the only things I said in the whole exchange) was along the lines of "OK you need to chill the fuck out... dude" this didn't go over well. The corner marshal is pissed cause the some of the racers didn't stop which after it was obvious the truck had the all continued. The corner marshal came over and apologized to the driver for the racers and he laid in to her about how we are always in the way and some one is gonna get hurt and how that if I didn't wipe that smirk off my face he was gonna climb down out of the truck and kick my ass. It was fairly stupid. The driver was understandably pissed and with all of his yelling it kept coming back to how he was gonna kick my ass...which I couldn't help but find amusing. No matter what the corner marshal said he kept looking, pointing and yelling at me. At this point I am just a guy who stopped to watch the race, I have nothing to do with whats going on, I just happen to be standing there... yet he is mad at me. Which made me smile at the amusement of the situation which in turn made him madder. He commented several times about how he was a big ol' boy and he could wipe the floor with me. I kept my mouth shut knowing that anything I said could have made things worse. In hindsight this was a bad idea. I should have spoken up. I should have defended this woman who the racers all ignored when they were all told to stop for their own safety who now in turn was getting cursed at but this a-hole. Or maybe I should have just climbed up on the truck and punched the bastard in the FT. I am not much of a fighter and don't know what my chances would have been if he would have gotten out of the truck. However, from his attitude and his appearance I would bet he was nothing more than a little fat man with a bad attitude who was having a bad day. I guess the easiest way to find out would have been to invite the old boy out of the truck for a roll in the gravel. I am a pretty big dude but I don't know how well I would do in a real fight. Getting punched hurts... its not something I really want. But if it would have come to that I think I could held my own until the group came back around to the corner. I would like to believe that my friends in the race wouldn't have left me hanging if it looked like I was getting a beat down. I hope.
Other than the fight threats the day was good. I finally got off my ass and pedaled to work. Finally. I have been really slacky in this department since Bike to work week. I tried to get on the dirt every night for a while and then last week it rained almost constantly. Before tomorrows commute I need to give the Peugeot a good looking over. The drive train started making awful noises on the ride home. Not good on a fixed gear. Not much can go wrong and if it is its not normally good. We shall see. Maybe switch to gears for tomorrow.

Things to do before dream land.

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