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@hippy
I remember reading anth's report about cycle speedway in citycycling (he posts here now and then.. let's see if typing his nick makes him appear..)
Below is an excerpt, full article can be found here: http://www.citycycling.co.uk/issue11/issue11page6.html
*"It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was finally taking part in my first cycle speedway training session of the season with Edinburgh Falcons. Needless to say, I'm a total novice in this sport, the brakeless, singlespeed, compact bikes still something of a mystery to me.
The racing line was obvious throughout with everyone, including myself, avoiding the loose and rough outside line. With 8 team members there a quick 'four versus four' competition was drawn up. And this is where I should have taken my warning. In my second race I had snuck into 2nd place when I heard a coming together.
One rider, Paul Kelly, was clearly badly hurt and after settling him down on a park bench he was taken to hospital. The track was clearly taking no prisoners today and the racing was abandoned. Instead, with four of us out on bikes, we decided to do a few fast laps in line. A high speed follow-my-leader. The aim was to start slowly and crank things up to a couple of laps at full speed.
The signal went up for the start of these fast laps and I started to hammer on the pedals. Everyone in front of me was a better rider and, conscious that I wanted to stay on the tail coming out of the first bend, I got back on the gas sooner than I would normally. And it went all wrong. My inside pedal hit the ground and I performed a textbook highside dismount, propelled over the bike, arcing back down towards the track.
Here instinct took over and I shot a hand out to break my fall before tumbling over with my legs wrapped in the bike. And as soon as I'd stopped I knew something was wrong. My arm felt funny, clicking, with bits moving. I shook it, grimaced, and sat down lightheaded. All of this happened as Paul, later diagnosed with a broken collarbone, was being driven out of the park.
With water and a few minutes supine on the grass I had regained enough lucidity to know I wouldn't be able to drive myself anywhere so instead a call had to be made to my understanding and understandably annoyed girlfriend who whisked me to A&E."*