A squirrel is usually defined as a rider who cannot hold a line in a pack or paceline, who darts from side to side unpredictably or brakes suddenly for no apparent reason -in short, an erratic bike handler, very likely to cause a crash.
Then of course, there are actual squirrels.
i have dodged these critters on numerous occasions, most recently when one bolted out and froze right in front of me during a 30+mph decent. Another time, a squirrel ran into my front wheel, bounced off and then ran into my rear wheel ( i believe it escaped with only a bad headache.)
This is yet another reason i hold onto my 36 spoke wheels. A high spoke count allows less room to entrap the wee beasties, unlike the more modern low spoke types currently in vogue.
This past weekend, a Chicago alderman was riding along a trail when he encountered one of these furry chaos factors:
The alderman was thrown over the bars and sustained some serious injuries. He remains hospitalised at the moment but is expected to make a good recovery.
One could make jokes about Kamikaze Squirrels (i did when i first heard the story, but then i read the news report,) but in this case such jokes would be in poor taste.
Wishing the gentleman a speedy recovery. To all the rest of you, be careful out there!
