I'm a light watcher. At every intersection I watch the light. When I'm stopped I watch the opposing green light until it turns yellow. Upon yellow, I wait a brief second before I begin clicking back into my pedal and starting out. This way, about 75% of the time I'm actually clipped in by the time I get the green light, and regardless of my clip-status, I am almost always the first to cross the intersection.
By first, I don't mean first bicycle...I mean first vehicle. Amazingly, I sometimes even enter the crosswalk on the opposite side of the intersection before the traffic moving the other direction exits that crosswalk. That generally happens when the driver going the other direction is not paying attention (read "texting").
This morning I came up to a red light alongside a white car. The driver of the car was acting very much like he was also a light watcher. As the light turned yellow he began to creep forward...as if he had taken his foot off of the brake. I was creeping forward also as I clicked into my pedal. As soon as the green light flashed we were off to the races! I managed to efficiently clip in, and thus had maximum acceleration on my side. Poor fella. I whooped him. Of course, he caught up with me by the next intersection. He would have passed me too if he didn't have to turn there.
I know it's a very short distance drag, but I rarely get beat. I'm pretty proud of that. I can count on it unless my competition is on a motorcycle. Sports cars are funny competition. These drivers are good at hitting the gas, but because they have excessive power on their side, they generally have under-developed light watching skills. I love beating them over the roar of their engines.
The question that plagues me is whether or not any of these people are actually in the game?
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