Crash

After over 800km of training rides, with less than three weeks to the event itself, I've had the accident that I've been anxious about since the beginning.

Thankfully, it was just a fight between me and a road, rather than a car or lorry, but that was bad enough.  It happened this morning, just before the halfway point of my 60km ride.

I was coming down a small hill into Wallington from Baldock and got to a right hand bend at the bottom.  It was a misty, slightly drizzly morning, so the road surface was a bit damp and therefore I was taking it easy.  But on this particular bend there was a fine covering of grit or gravel, plus a bit of mud (being a country road).  The combination of those, particularly when damp, meant there was just no grip on the bend and my bike simply slid out from underneath me.

I slammed down on to the road, landing on my right arm and hip and sliding along the gritty tarmac until I came to a stop.  I can't begin to explain how much it hurt at the time (and I think I may have yelled a bit), but after about a minute of lying in the road I thought I'd better get up!  I staggered over to a bench in a bus shelter a few yards away and checked myself and the bike over. Nothing broken.

Just as I was done, a group of about six cyclists I'd passed a few miles earlier came down the same hill, but I didn't see them in time to yell a warning and the third guy in line did exactly the same as me.

Luckily, neither of us seemed seriously injured, although I've got a few choice grazes on my arm (through a fairly thick top I was wearing, which now has some holes in), a mashed up couple of knuckles (through my cycling gloves) and a pretty swollen hip where I banged down on it and slid along.  I've got a feeling some pretty coloured bruises will come out over the next few days too!

Being almost halfway around, I had to choose between phoning for assistance, or pushing on with the ride.  I didn't feel too bad so thought I'd give it a go and eventually managed to limp home rather slower than normal.  I felt sorry for the other guy though as their group were on a charity ride from Coventry to Amsterdam (and back I think they said) so he had a lot of miles still to do today and then has to do more tomorrow, so I hope he's okay.

Once I got home though I think the adrenaline wore off and the joints started seizing up.  My right arm and leg are both pretty sore now, but it could have been a lot worse so I'm counting my blessings!

We'll see how I feel tomorrow!

Update: I've just downloaded the log from my GPS unit to see what speed I was doing when I tumbled.  Luckily it was only 32.5kph (20.2mph) as I knew the conditions weren't very good, so the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I dread to think what would have happened if I'd been going faster (such as the peak 60.8kph I reached on a dry day last week!).