Crashing is a fact of cycling but often can be avoided if you have good habits and good handling skills. It's no coincidence that experienced cyclists tend to crash less than beginners. After years of racing they've developed instincts for avoiding danger.

One important habit is monitoring your front wheel so that it rarely overlaps the rear wheel ahead of you. If your wheels overlap and the other rider makes a sudden move -- to pull out of the paceline, to attack, to avoid a pothole -- your wheels will strike and it's going to be you who pays the price.

That said, should the paceline slow, there's no need to slam on the brakes in order to avoid the overlap. Rather than panic and cause trouble, coast and hold your line until you can get back behind that wheel.

Another good habit: Monitor your "outs." At any given time, you need to know what you'd do should there be a crash ahead of you. Can you escape onto the shoulder? Is there a curb or a driveway you can ride onto? Are you completely boxed in? Then you might want to find another spot to be.

In the winter months it's more important than ever to have a quality light system for when we train at night, and in this month's Bike Traffic, Jim Freeman provides one more reason to light up: If it doesn't save you from a crash, it can at least save you from becoming culpable. "If the cyclist does not have proper lighting they risk being blamed for the crash because of the cyclist’s lack of visibility." Freeman reminds us that Illinois law requires all cyclists to have a light in front and either a reflector or light in back.