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middleofnowhere
HatBeard
About 4 miles into my commute I am riding between tooting bec and balham and a tipper lorry decides that sitting 2 metres off the back of my bike at 20mph rather than overtaking in the entirely clear second lane to our right was a safe thing to do when it's raining and the roads are wet.
There's a row of parking bays to my left so I swing into them and slow a little to allow Mr Important past but just as I'm about to pull back out behind him I run over something which had been totally invisible to my eyes which gets flipped up and stings the back of my leg.
My tyre goes immediately flat and I just about manage to stay upright long enough to come to a stop by the kerb.
flip the bike over so I can start fixing the puncture and find this (that's a gator hardshell btw)...
(green stuff is anti-puncture tyre sealant but sadly not quite cut out for this kind of thing)
I then check the back of my leg where I was "stung" and (very luckily) I only have a tiny 1cm nick just under the calf muscle but blood has run all the way down to my socks. tried to find what caused it in the road as if it can cut through a tyre like that it's super dangerous but couldn't see anything. Am very fortunate that it only just caught me or I'd be in A&E right now.