Here's a report from Matt Dorling on his recent rude introduction with the tarmac.
Out for an early evening ride a couple of weeks ago, all was going well. It had been a couple of weeks since I’d had time to do a harder or longer session on the bike so on the last 10 minutes home decided to push on as I want to be at least able to keep up with the group when we go to Sweden next year!! On the last couple of miles to home there is a lovely smooth piece of road where I rode close to maximum effort just to finish off the ride.
As I merrily panted along lady luck decided to make things interesting! A car coming the other way clipped the side of a rock bigger than my fist and sent it flying across the tarmac just as I was riding by, hitting my front wheel knocking the bike from under me and sending me crashing to the ground( I was doing about 27mph at the time). Sitting on the ground dazed I was trying to work out why I went from happily rding along to now sitting in the road with lots of pain. Luckily a number of people in cars following stopped, wrapped me up in jackets and sent for the ambulance, as well as helping me phone my wife. Off to the hospital I went, having an excellent experience on the pain relief gas enroute, to be informed that I was now the proud owner of a broken collar bone and that riding my bike is out for 6-8 weeks.
So in summary I have now had confirmed:
1) There are more decent people out there that are willing to help a stranger than I thought.
2) Wearing a helmet on a bike is a must. If I had not been things could have been very different. (see pic)
3) Carbon replacement pieces for bikes are expensive.
4) My Oakley Transitions will never be the same again. (see pic)
5) Carrying a mobile phone “just in case” is a must.
6) I’m a very poor patient, and spend most evening’s trying to come up with ways that I could ride my indoor trainer whilst my arm is in a sling.
I'm sure you will join me in wishing Matt a swift recovery. Be careful out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment