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@markairsy1
Over the weekend i came a cropper on a nice 90km country ride.
Its a sweltering 30degrees and humid as furk, sweaty and tired as the wind has been blustering in all directions throughout the morning we had just started our homeward leg of the journey. After some inclines on rougher surfaces and feeling the ache and burn in thighs we were enjoying a beautiful undulating gentle decline along a tree-lined sigle lane country road savouring the passing shade before the more open roads and unforgiving sun again. A nice cool breeze instead of the blustry gusts felt like heaven momenterily whilst i checked myself over noting the number of flies and bugs and grass seeds (general countryside crap) glued to my sweaty limbs and jersey before taking a refreshing couple of gulps from my pocket bottle! the beautiful undulating shadow cast decline increased in gradient toward the bottom of the hill before a mirroring small incline the otherside. the after affects of that momentary heaven needed an adrenalin rush to boot so i returned the water bottle to my jersey pocket and bombed the last 50 or so metres before pushing up the incline with speed and ease and as i was reaching the peak of that said incline relaxed down sat up and took my hands off the bars...
With the high contrasing sunsplattered road and deep black shadows i had not seen the surface of the road which had been seriously distorted by a tree root. And with the me sitting up, lifting hands off bars and relaxing too much after the glory of beating an incline into submission with nothing but the strength and energy i have disposable to my mere human body, mother earth took a swipe! Front wheel initially drops into small hole throwing my weight forward and then the wheel quickly comes up towards me whilst my weight and body is shifting over the bar. the slow motion kicks in as my hands miss the bars, back wheel comes up and i am doing for what feels like the longest endo in history cycling on my front wheel only with no hands! slow motion quickly turns into real time as the front wheel naturally kicks off to the side, my bare hands (it had been hot remember!) hit tarmac (still clipped in at this moment), left elbow goes down and onto my shoulder (I come unclipped at this point as my bike has follwed me, saddle smashing the road, behind seat waterbottle and cage smash and I slide what seems to be forever on my back tearing technical fabrics, skin, burning thru the plastic watterbottle in my rearpocket which somehow manages to stay put but leaves just a big damp orange patch over my ripped lycra, and scraping the face off my mobile phone until i come to a halt...... took a moment or two to get up and hop around like a loon and still feeling the pain on my knee, elbow, shoulder and hands now.
That'll learn me. keep your hands on the damn handlebar!