The evening ride started like many others, with Don Terres and his wife leaving from their lakeside cabin and pedaling up toward the Dodge Ridge Ski Resort for an hour of exercise before sunset.
But cruising the curvy road back down toward their abode on Pinecrest Lake at dusk on Sunday, the unexpected occurred: As Terres rounded the inside of a bend on his road bike at a brisk 25 mph, a thick mass of fur suddenly came into view dead ahead — a black bear crossing the road. Terres crashed into the animal headlong, spilling onto the pavement and losing consciousness temporarily, he told the Chronicle.
“I didn’t see the bear until it was literally five feet in front of me and I just hit it,” said Terres, 67, of Riverside County. “All I remember is a close-up of the bear’s face. He looked about as scared and surprised as I was.”…