The Elegant Variation: TdT LOG #2: FACING DANGER

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September 14, 2005

TdT LOG #2: FACING DANGER

20050331pch I'm not up to the usual literary links today. I've spent the last day or two trying to digest the news that at least one but probably two cyclists were killed this weekend on Pacific Coast Highway, near the location where I start my Sunday long rides. I know I promised to restrict my posts about training for El Tour de Tucson to weekends but, coupled with the crash of friend during my weekend ride, I'm not much good for anything else. I expect literary news will return tomorrow.

The details I have are sketchy, and I come to them via a cycling newsgroup I belong to. The first word that we got through from the Fire Department was already grim:

1006 hrs Saturday 9/10 at PCH & John Tyler Dr in Malibu. 2 cyclists involved in traffic accident in full tramatic arrest being airlifted to UCLA Hospital.

This post was followed up with this confirmation of the bad news:

I have been informed that one of the cyclists killed Saturday on PCH was Scott Bleifer. He was an early morning regular at the Peet's on Montana, often in the company of his brown labrador named Kona, and I'm told (although I have not yet confirmed) that he was a member of La Grange. I do not yet know the name of the other cyclist who was killed. Scott was training for the annual arthritis fundraiser ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which he had done for the last few years.

It appears that some witnesses may have successfully chased after the driver, who apparently drove off without stopping. Let's hope that they found the guy so he can be prosecuted.

This essay from the Pepperdine University Graphic (Pepperdine is our departure point for our Sunday rides) gives you a good idea of just how hairy a ride PCH can be.

UPDATE: The LA Times finally gets around to noting the accident this morning. Both cyclists were killed.

So it was in somber and subdued moods that we set out on Sunday morning. I had a 70 mile ride on my training plan for that day. I left from Pepperdine, just yards from the site of the accident. My coach Gary and his girlfriend Sara joined up with me 16 miles out at Neptune's Net - they needed fewer miles than I did - and we continued on together. About nine miles out, Sara crashed.

She hit a large rock in the shoulder. There's fallen debris all over PCH and dodging it all can be exhausting. Gary was in the first position, I was second, Sara was third. Gary pointed the rock out and passed it. I didn't have enough time to react: As my hand was leaving the handlbar to point it out to Sara, I heard the horrible sound of her hitting the rock. I turned in time to see Sara fall and slide into the gravel. We were riding along at about 20 miles an hour - it would have been faster but for a strong headwind.

You can't imagine the sound of someone crashing on a bike. You might have seen crashes on the Tour de France but you can't know what it's like to be watching it unfold in front of you, happening to someone you care about. Being unable to do anything but watch. It's a horrible, helpless feeling and the crash has replayed in a continuing loop in my brain since Sunday.

Fortunately nothing was broken and there were no life threatening injuries. But she received a severe case of road rash, which required an emergency room visit to clean out the debris from her thigh. And, as you can imagine, she was, and is, deeply shaken.

So I've been struggling with my emotions since then. Truth is I feel responsible for Sara's fall. I wasn't fast enough to alert her. I should have been in third position (I usually am). I'd give anything to be able to replay that moment.

And I think about these two riders who set out Saturday morning to do this thing they loved, this thing they probably did every week. Never imagining that they wouldn't come home. They could have been anyone I know, could easily have been people I ride with every week. They could have been me, could have been the three of us. I know that cycling is dangerous. And I know there is only so much you can do to protect yourself. And I can say with certainty that there is no one - no one - I would feel more comfortable with having at my side if I were to go down than Gary. I do quite literally trust him with my life. And I know I'll be out there Sunday morning, working toward my goal in Tucson. But none of that seems to help lift this ineffable sadness that clings to me today.

Posted at 12:05 AM in Personal | Permalink

Comments

What's awful is that compared to downtown LA, PCH should be a much smoother, safer ride. But it's not.

My husband rode from SF down to Orange County a couple of years ago. He and his friends got buzzed by tractor-trailers while riding (uphill) along cliffsides.

It boggles the imagination.

Posted by: mapletree7 | September 14, 2005 at 08:58 AM

When I saw the name "Scott Bleifer" and his age in the L.A. Times piece yesterday I almost immediately knew it was the same Scott Bleifer with whom I went to high school. Very sad.

I've done rides on PCH from Marina Del Rey to Pt. Mugu and back on several occasions and it's just very squirrely in places, never more so than southbound around Temescal Canyon. I won't even dare.

Back in 2003 me and a friend and another serving as crew did a private fundraising ride to benefit the World Parrot Trust from San Francisco to L.A. and early in the planning stages we opted to come inland at Ventura and down Highway 126 for a finish in Santa Clarita rather than down PCH to Santa Monica because we just didn't want the hassles and close-calls that PCH never ceases to supply.

Ride safely.

Posted by: Will Campbell | September 15, 2005 at 07:09 PM

i just returned from scotts funeral. very sad. i am in the begining stages of organizing a cycle "sit in" on p.c.h. to bring awareness to the public of cycle safety. i to, had a very difficult time getting on my bike after such a tragic accident. it does not need to happen.

Posted by: Brian Hodes | September 15, 2005 at 07:18 PM

As a person who once lived in Malibu for many years - and who enjoys bike riding, I would never ride on the majority of PCH. The constant - and daily ever changing - physical intrusions into the shoulder area forces bikes - without warning - directly into the paths of cars.

And while I - luckily - never saw a bike rider get hit - I saw a number of car accidents caused when drivers had to swerve and hit another car to avoid hitting a bike that cut directly in front of them. Not once, I might add, did I ever see any biker stop after causing an accident.

I don't know what can be done to stop tragedies like this; if I had a solution, I would have proposed it many years ago.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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Dictation: A Quartet by Cynthia Ozick

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*Now in Paperback*

What would you do if the woman who’d left you high and dry ten years ago called out of the blue to invite you to a party without any further explanation? If you’re French, you’d probably spend a lot of time pondering the Deeper Significance Of It All, which is exactly what Grégoire Bouillier does for the 120 hilarious pages of The Mystery Guest. This slim, witty memoir follows Bouillier through the party from hell, and is a case study in Gallic self-abasement. Before it’s all done, you’ll set fire to any turtleneck hanging in your closet and think twice before buying an expensive Bordeaux as a gift. But fear not – just when it seems that all is, indeed, random and pointless and there is no Deeper Significance, salvation arrives in the unlikely form of Virginia Woolf, and the tale ends on a note of unforced optimism. Parfait.
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The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 14, 2005

TdT LOG #2: FACING DANGER

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 14, 2005

TdT LOG #2: FACING DANGER

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism