News-Record.com

If you encountered as many cyclists as I did on your way in to work today, you might have no idea that today is the first day of Bike to Work Week.

But maybe I just missed the crowd as I got ready. I made it to work about an hour later than usual today and I attribute all of my tardiness to collecting cycling paraphernalia from its various hiding places around my apartment. I live about a mile and a half from work, so the actual ride only took me 15 minutes, hardly more than my 5-minute drive.

This week, I’m going to try to ride my bike to work and for as much of my job as I can manage – I’m the daytime public safety reporter, so if there is a murder in High Point, it’s not really going to be practical for me to take 90 minutes to get there by bike. I’ll drive a company car if something like that happens. Today I have a few things to get done downtown, so I’m looking forward to riding around getting to those. I would normally walk, but since I have my bike, I’ll ride it.

Here are a few observations from this morning:
- The hill heading south away from Wendover on N. Eugene Street is bigger than it looks from a car. I got down into my biggest ring climbing it.
- That same stretch is the most residential and tony part of my route, so I was surprised the drivers weren’t more courteous. I encountered a total of four cars, two going my direction and two coming toward me. The strange thing was that the cars going my direction both passed me at exactly the same time we encountered the opposing cars, so 100% of the times I was passed on this narrow street, we were lined up three across. The timing just seemed strange to me on such a low-traffic street.

While complaining about drivers, I should include some disclosure. In 2004, I broke my nose and had a shoulder separation after getting hit by a car while riding my bike. The driver was a super nice guy who felt awful about not seeing me, but he didn’t see me and I had to spend my Friday night having my face sewn back together, so I’m a little extra timid about riding around cars. Also, 99 percent of the time, I am a driver.

Today I took Peter Ohlms' advice and took Parkway Drive through Fisher Park and it was a really pleasant ride. That's definitely how I'll be getting downtown from now on. Today I really experienced that part of bike travel that allows you to look around and see things you don't see from a car. For example, I've lived in Greensboro for two years now and today is the first time I noticed the old fire station building on Elm street. What a cool building.

For variety's sake, I'll try a couple of other routes this week.I'm curious to see what Elm is like in the morning with less traffic. I used that route to get home on Monday at about 5:45 and I was really uncomfortable with the four lanes of traffic. One driver gave me a lot of space (and I thank you for it, silver Lexus SUV), and none slowed down enough for me to notice.

But back to this morning. When everything is going great, you get an opportunity to get irritated by really minor things. Like the grease stain on my calf. Getting ready this morning, I noticed that I hadn't completely washed off the one from yesterday, then arriving at work today, I had a new black smear that covered the old one.

Or how in my 15-minute ride I had to click in and out a bunch of times: at a stop sign at the end of my street, getting from the greenway onto the street, stop light, stop sign, stop light. Does anyone know if a different kind of pedal is more useful for stop-and-go cycling? I own flat pedals I could change out, but I don't want to. A possible solution could be to get better at standing with one leg clicked in and one out. I have had some really embarrassing falls like that.

Today there is a women's only cycling clinic at Cycles de Oro from 7 to 9.
The store's web page: http://www.cyclesdeoro.com/

Here's the whole events calendar. I'll feel a little silly on Friday at the end of my super short ride, eating the snacks the city is providing for cyclists who are coming from far away and may actually need refueling, but I'll do it anyway.