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  • This one was a couple of weeks back now, but I forgot to 'write it up' until now...

    So, first, a little back-story. On a sunny Saturday I head out on a ride around Cambridgeshire that sees our terrible roads rattle my already slightly tired front wheel into near oblivion, causing me to spend a solid hour re-trueing the bastard (stupid hipster lo-pro wheel doesn't have enough spokes to tension things properly). Eventually I get there and ride home from LBS feeling smug.

    Sunday passes uneventfully and then Monday morning rolls around and it's commuting time. As I'm heading up the usually busy Mill Road in Cambridge I come upon a queue of cars waiting behind a bin lorry loading up. The road isn't all that wide and the bin lorry is alongside a line of parked cars meaning there's no traffic in the right hand lane - and won't be for the next couple of minutes. Quick as a flash our hero pops out Premium Rush-style to overtake the queue at speed.

    Halfway along the queue, our nemesis; Audi-man, decides he's had enough of the queue and is going to go somewhere else, so pulls out horizontally from the queue straight into the path of our hero without so much as a backward glance. I (the hero) spot this happening in enough time to realise I am going to have to hit him whatever happens, but with sufficient time to make an evasive manouevre (rad skid) and swerve out to the right to avoid hitting him square on the side. So instead of hitting him side on, I end up connecting with his front corner and flipping over the bonnet, leaving my bike on the other side of the car.

    To his credit, Audi-man leapt straight out of his car to check I was OK and waited while I checked the bike and my clothes over for damage in the middle of the road (Scraped up a pair of new jeans, destroyed gloves - and palms - skinned knees a 10 year old would be proud of and a stupid 16 spoke hipster lo pro front wheel in need of a true, but fundamentally OK and nothing I could really ask him to pay for.). Once I gave him a good screaming at and he realised I was OK he started crying a bit, so I laid it on nice and thick reminding him that not everyone can do amazing life-saving fixeh skidz and he'll need to watch out more in the future before he kills someone. He then got a little bit teary again and I dusted myself off and went to the pavement to double check everything was OK and set back off towards work. Again, to his credit he pulled out of the road and came back over to me and asked if I needed a lift or wanted his number or anything, just in case - plus I think he was a bit shaken up; it's not every day someone goes over your bonnet.

    All the while not a single other person got out of their car. Which was a bit of a surprise considering I spent about 2 minutes in the middle of the road (in stationary traffic) sorting this whole thing out...


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