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@cliveo
I returned home from a business trip yesterday. Four days in Monte Carlo:
3 breakfast meetings
3 business lunches
4 business dinners
4 cocktail parties
43 meetings
After squeezing all of this into 20 hour days, I was exhausted and slept like a log last night. This moring I had a lie in and then waved my daughter off as my wife took her off to Edinburgh to start university. I ambled for a while and then cleaned my bike and set off for the office. The sun was shinning and my bicycle was running smoothly. My legs were rested and I had had my first decent sleep in a week.
I came down new North Road, having executed a perfect trackstand at the Essex Road lights and found the lights at the bottom on green. I weht through onto East Street feeling good about the day.
And then a hatchback passed me and immediately turned left into Haberdashers Street. I hit the brakes, tried to swerve and stopped pedalling but all to no avail. I hit the car and went down. I uttered a loud and rather vulgar exclamation as I did so.
Amazingly the driver stopped. I picked myself up, checked my bike for damage - none - and then myself - a cut on my elbow and a graze on my knee. The driver stepped out of the car visibly shaken, apologised repeatedly and asked after my wellbeing.
"You need to be more careful and look out for cyclists" I said. "I could have damaged you car".
I remounted and rode off.
While regretting the profanity I uttered as I hit the street, I think that it is fair to say that the driver's level of shock will affect her more deeply than the superficial injuries that I suffered and will, hopefully, ensure that she is not so careless in the future.
We were both very lucky.