A Memorial Day that I simply won't forget.

Monday right?
That's how most Memorial Days start and this was another one in the same Memorial Day beginnings.
Beautiful blue skys and nice and warm no rain in sight for miles.
I thought hey it's a holiday I'm not racing and the shop is closed I ain't got S@!t to do so I'll roll out the 9-2-5 fixy and go cruse the parks and paths and get in some nice easy recovery miles.

First stop on the ride Wash Park mid town Denver proper.
Here I'm rollin through the park and all of a sudden I'm being passed by a
US Postal Jersey, then an FDJ jersey and then a Triple By Pass jersey.
I thought crap I'd better get on it and chase those guys down or their going to be up the road and the race will be over once the gap gets up to 30mins.
Then I remembered I'm on my fixy, doing a recovery ride so keep on spinning.
So I did.
From Wash Park to the Beach at REI down the bike path along Speer Blvd. keep your hands on the brakes and make sure you have eyes in the back of your head.
It's a mad house usually on the weekends holidays forget it.
Beyond catagorey mad house.
Finally I arrive at the beach and who do I see but none other then probably one of the hardest riders I know on the face of the earth (Gilbert Springs).
Gilbert is special in the respect that this guy rolls on a bike that is part converted extra cycle and part chopper and I think that there was a bike in there at one time.
Not to mention it weighs 40+lbs easy.
People at the shop that have known him for years said that they hooked up a cyclo computer to his bike and in 1 year he put in 10,000 miles.
"That's a hard ass rider"
People around the Highlands neighborhood as well as people that come into
MOB Cyclery know Gilbert or Gil.
Anyhew not to digress but I will anyway.
Gil has his pedal powered Chopper with a real chopper gas tank, iron cross mirrors, lights, real leather moto saddle bags and the clicker in the wheel so everytime the wheel turns it sounds like it's a real motor.
Everyone had one as a kid or knew of one in their neighborhood.
I mean he was on this Chopper this past Thanksgiving when the temp was in the 20's and a few feet of snow on the ground. There's Gil not riding just pushing his chopper through the snow singing along, oh yeah he likes to sing. Sometimes he'll just bust into song it makes people smile.

Gil rolls by with american flags blowin in the wind I run into a few folks from the Einstiens Cycling Team, Mike Rob, Sova King and D.Nickel.
We share the news to D about our fallen team mate Grayson (gods speed) we wish eachother well and go on our way.
Now it took a while to get through the traffic near the REI.
I don't mean the cars, I mean all the people on foot, rollerblades and bikes with tagalongs on them and 2 wheeled craft pilots that think that they're the only people on a bicycle.
It was a sea of humanity.
Oh the humanity.
After making my way through the humanity I decided to roll over to the skate park to watch some skaters rip it.
Here too tons of people on bikes, boards, blades or folks just hanging out to people watch like myself. All in the name of humanity.
The skate park is a great place for that.
Ok now the clouds are starting to roll in so it's time to roll.
Now I'm at the stop light at 20th.and Blake smack dab in front of Coors Field maybe 25,000 fans all trying to get to their seats before the opening pitch.
I thought crap I need to get out of here there's a ton of people
(80% of them buzzed out of their skulls) cops directing traffic on every corner.

The light turns green so off I go just after I clip in to my pedal I feel my front wheel getting picked up off the ground and I'm like wait a tik. I'm not doing this.
I look over and this red grand prix's mirror hooked into my handle bars. Now my bike is 2 feet off the ground and I'm now being dragged along in the gutter. I'm dragged for abbout 10 feet.
Then Wham!!!
The car lets the bike go and I hit the concrete Slamm!!! Smack!!! Blamm!!!
I'm down in the middle of the road people are just walking by like nothing happened
Lah-lah-lah-lah-lah, then a few half sober slash clear headed people come to my aid stop traffic so I don't get hit by another car and help me out of the road.
When it finally sinks in I'm like S#^T I just got hit by a
F%*king Car!!!!!!
Second thought after a quick internal scan if to see if anything was broken was how is
My Bike???
Is it Ok???
To my disappointment my front wheel was now a fresh Taco.
My fork dropout was a bit tweaked and out of alignment.
Now the topper to all this was that the cars driver knew they hit something but the car kept on going.
That's right they didn't even stop!!!!!
For their sake I hope they were drunk not really .
Fuc man I was just hit and they didn't even stop.
Accidents do happen and that's life, if I were to hit someone I would stop to see if they were ok wouldn't you?
A few of the witnesses came up to me and said they have the plate # and they will help if I needed any witnesses.
I make my way over to the police officer to talk about filling an accident report and in the process another officer comes over and I begin telling the story to him he chimes in, yeah I saw you in the middle of the road and I thought what's he doing in the middle of the road?
I thought Denvers finest doing what they can.
There were at least 25,000 people all over the place so a guy laying in the middle of the road might be unusual I guess right.
After a few calls I had a ride and some limeade and lanicane on the way.
I finished filling an accident report and that was that.

Long story short,
The cars licenes plate dosen't match up with the description from the witnesses so the detective told me on the phone that his hands were tied and that if I ever see that car again to give him a call and that's about it.
Lucky me I got out with some road rash and a few aches and pains.
Thank goodness.
On the bright side my fixy has a new look with a deep dish
Mavic Cosmic bladed spoke front wheel cirque 1993.
Look for photos soon.
This was a Memorial Day that I simply won't forget.
~Jobywon