Why cyclists should not drive..

This may be a stretch as I don't feel like a cyclist these days, more of a poser-cyclist, but maybe that will change now that we're back from Michigan and the holidays are almost over.

Quick update/rant: super donut hole for the last two weeks. No miles, not even imaginary miles during my sleep. I dreamt of laziness, chicken and gravy, perogies, ham, stuffing, coffee, polish whiskey, and strohs in a can. Surprisingly my days were filled with the exact same things my dreams were. So not only did I bring back a couple of sweet presents from the in laws, I also brought back about ten pounds with me that I wasn't expecting...nice!

Now to the content that follows the title; Guys/gals who spend (or in my case, spent) a good portion of their day on a saddle over two wheels shouldn't spend too much time behind the wheel. Specifically, they should not spend more than 6 hours behind a steering wheel driving through states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. After 400 miles, two red bulls, a medium coffee, and about a pound of salted pretzels I noticed I was subconsciously bringing my road tactics to the "real" road. Note this case:

At one point, I was driving comfortably around 80 mph with about 3 or 4 cars behind me "pacing" my 15 mph over the speed limit. Nobody was coming around to take their share of the risk of getting pulled over and felt like they could leave me out there to be the sacrificial lamb if a cop decided to pull any of us over. I noticed this for about 15 minutes, and kept pulling into the middle lane to let someone pull through, but nobody wanted to do the work and were looking for free rides to Breezewood, PA. So at one point we came up on two trucks that were chugging up a hill in the right lane. The foursome behind me had left open a 2 second gap and I saw that the second truck was looking to pass the first. I passed the first truck and then saw that he immediately pulled out into the passing lane to follow me in passing the second truck (taking up the space between me and the four "wheel-suckers" behind me...so what did I do you ask?? I attacked of course! I dropped the hammer and ramped up the speed about an extra 15 mph and immediately gapped the truck who didn't have the snap to follow my acceleration. By the time he had passed the first truck and moved over back to the right lane, I had a good quarter mile on the foursome and never saw them again....textbook tactics.

I got an earfull from the wife, but felt that the cycling gods had to approve of my move....I kept doing stuff like that. If a car passed a caravan that I was in and nobody responded to the move or a car was blocking the front, I would attack and attempt to bridge up to the speeding car (this resulted in much yelling from within the car, but seriously...my role is to cover moves!).

I'm glad I don't drive very often...I could see myself getting a lot of tickets and then being thrown in jail by the cop for being insane after I tried to explain to him how my actions were logical and should be rewarded as opposed to punished.

Anyway, a belated Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas!

Cheers.