Pain in the butt

Coming back across the Golden Gate Bridge from my ride on Sunday the wind was blowing at 30+ mph. As per usual, tourists were out in full force. I noticed two women on the right in front of me who had dismounted from their bikes to take photos. The next thing I know a huge gust of wind blew one of the bikes over directly into my path. As I swerved to avoid a potential disaster, I noticed two riders coming from the other direction. In order to avoid hitting them, I pulled an acrobatic maneuver that landed me and my bike on the ground.

Miraculously nothing happened to my bike! I, on the other hand, seem to have pulled or strained a muscle in my butt. Once back on my feet the woman whose bike blew over asked me if it was her fault. I was tired, low on blood sugar and in such disbelief that she asked me such as stupid question that I could not respond. I simply glared at her, remounted my bike and rode off.

Riding across the Golden Gate Bridge can be challenging on windy days. Weekends are even more dangerous given the number of tourists and their poor bike handling skills. I expect the risk of incident to be even greater this summer with the dollar being so low as record numbers of tourists descend on the city.

I think the bike rental companies should teach everyone basic bike handling skills and rules of the road before sending them out to wreak havoc on the roads.