Is it ego, a sense of entitlement or just plain stupidity?

Or did he just have an overwhelming urge to commit suicide by dump truck?

Any biking enthusiasts out there? If you are, you probably oughta skip this particular post. I'm about to call one of your bretheren a moron. If you do what he was doin, you're a moron, too.

During the course of my workday yesterday, I had to run to Princeville. Coming back on...hmmmm...is it 91? Or 90? I get the two mixed up.

Aaaanyway, I was coming back on the Dunlap-Alta-Allen Road route...ya know where I'm talkin about?

To set the scene, there's a big new overpriced, overbuilt, ticky-tacky-type housing (hey...it IS Dunnnnlap, right?) development being constructed on the left side of the road, so there are lots of construction vehicles coming back and forth. There are several businessess along there, too...Shamrock Plastics is one. It was about 3 pm, so all the soccer moms in their SUV's or minivans were...well...doing whatever it is soccer moms do at that time of day. Ferrying all the little rugrats to one place or another, I suppose.

To call the traffic 'heavy' would be a slight understatement. Just to ice the cake a little, the road is narrow and twisty/turny/hilly.

I'm the second vehicle in a looooong line of traffic heading into town. I'm following a slow, lumbering dump truck who takes up nearly the whole lane. I have no way to pass...because of all the shit I just mentioned.

So the dump truck slows down to two fuckin miles an hour. I'm trying to see what the hell the hold up is, when I notice an idiot on a bicycle, riding ON the pavement, just in front and to the right of the dump truck.

He's got his fancy-schmancy bike, complete with water bottle. He's got his spiffy yellow and black spandex (ewwwwww!) bike suit on with matching plastic helmet (yea...that'll protect his pea-brain when that dump truck rolls over it, crushing his skull like an eggshell) and he's pedalin away like he's the only mo fo on the damn road.

Yea. He's cool. (Not in a million years, buddy)

Now, I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar...but...uh...WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE THINKING???

With all the places there are to ride a fuckin bicycle around this area, WHY did he pick a busy, narrow road at the absolute BUSIEST time of day? And he's not the first idjit I've seen do that...along with those die-hard joggers that pick the busiest routes at the busiest time of day.

WHY do they do that? Is it like..."hey, nobody'll see me if I ride my bike/jog on a secluded side street/highway. And it's like...all about being seen while I exercise my yuppie ass in my three-hundred dollar biking outfit/jogging shoes, doncha know? I mean, what good is it to have these rock-hard calf muscles or this tight ass if nobody sees 'em, right?"

The dump truck couldn't get around him because of traffic coming the other way. And that stupid sonovabitch would not pull off the road to let the traffic by...or even to save his life, evidently.

I'm sorry, but the next time I read about a cyclist being tragically killed while riding on the highway, it's gonna be damn hard for me to muster up any sympathy.

Especially if he's wearin a big, flashing sign on his back that says, "PLEASE RUN OVER ME AND KILL ME BECAUSE I'M TOO STUPID TO LIVE"