bikes are vehicles, too

there were only about 10 of us on the bike ride today, including 2 coaches and a mentor. 2 other riders from the la tri club joined us as well, and we did a route called mandevilla. we rode east on san vicente then up on 26th, across sunset and onto mandevilla ave. today's ride was almost all uphill. from the point we turned on mandevilla, it was entirely uphill. it never even leveled out at any point. it was a pretty tough ride, and we didn't even make it up to the top. we were told that mandevilla is 5 miles, all uphill.

about 3/4 of the way through the ride, i noticed that a bunch of my teammates were stopped in front of a house. i thought, "oh nice! this is the end of the ride." unfortunately, one of the la tri club riders got hit by a car on the ride. she got bounced because of a crack in the pavement, and she got clipped by the sideview mirror of a car that was driving by. she said she was ok, but that her tailbone hurt. so 911 was called, and she got put on a backboard for precautions. even though she's going to be fine, it was a really scary moment. because i really started noticing how close cars were driving by us. bikes have as much right to the road as cars do, but i'm pretty sure a majority of drivers don't know that. there was a car that drove within about a foot and a half of me as i was rolling down the hill. and i was going at a pretty good clip, too.

at the end of the ride, coach ian mentioned that we were going to do that ride again soon - and get all the way to the top, "so be mentally prepared." shya, ok. because that's all preparation i'm going to need.