Ken Condon Saved My Life...

[ShawnKing]

He at least saved me from a serious accident!

I was out riding on Tuesday. I had just finished Ken's *excellent* book, "Riding in the Zone" (http://www.ridinginthezone.com/) the night before and was looking forward to practicing some of the techniques he described.

One in particular that stuck in my mind was the idea of having a "Cornering Plan" - each corner we come to has a different method of travel through and, if you have a plan ahead of time, the corner becomes that much smoother. Another thing I was practicing is a bad habit I have - when I hit the apex of a turn, I'm often far too close to the centerline and sometimes my helmet/upper body is over it. It's never been an issue but I wanted to try and break the habit.

I was out on familiar roads, thinking about Ken's thoughts on approach, entry, apex and exit and make sure I had good lines into the turn. I was focusing on delaying my entry into a turn and making my imaginary apex point the center track and not the yellow center line as I have done in the past.

I come up on a fairly blind, left hand, decreasing radius turn - exactly the kind of turn I might be too close to the yellow line at apex in the past. I set up wide to the right, delay entry well past where I would normally have turned in and flicked the bike into the entry. Just like Ken teaches in the book, I've got a little throttle on to steady the bike, I'm looking through and leaning into the turn. This is fun!

Until I came around the blind turn and saw the guy on the bicycle in the other lane... He was fine - he was just a guy on a bike coming through the turn going the opposite way. But my brain told me there was going to be a problem very soon.

Sure enough, coming around the bicycle at the exact same time as I hit the turn's apex was an impatient cager who was not only passing the bicycle - he was doing it with *both* of his left side wheels well in *my* lane. He was so far over, the center yellow line was under his steering wheel.

Before Ken's book, I might have ended up as a smear on his windshield. I certainly would have panicked and maybe grabbed too much brake and headed off into the ditch.

But I firmly believe that, because I had a cornering plan, because I was thinking about the ride, because I was actively practicing technique - because I was in The Zone - the car slipped by me with no drama from me other than a softly muttered, "Idiot..." in my helmet.

I hadn't even let off the throttle....

I accelerated out of the turn and went on my merry way knowing I had dodged yet another bullet but also knowing that this time, I did it with grace and ease.

So - thank you Ken Condon!