Sat on my bum, bike upside down and rear wheel removed on the A20, face resting on hands, feeling a touch downhearted, I imagine the motorists driving by were thinking that's why they don't cycle and associated thoughts.
However they miss out on a cracking ride with a good friend, a few nasty hills but some lovely sweeping bends on a nice day for riding. Only ruined by total failure of the rear inner tube. Fortunately only a few miles from the end of the ride, so my good friend went ahead and came back to get me in the car.
The most disheartening thing was failing to ride 50 miles, instead I end the day with a paltry 48.85 miles. It's like hitting the post in a penalty.
Lesson learnt, carry a spare inner tube and something to pump it with.
Slightly better feeling was achieved last week when I reached over 1000 miles in total distance cycling since I got my bike on 2nd April. I felt / feel pretty chuffed with myself achieving that particular milestone.
As milestones go, today I also beat my maximum speed record and achieved 40.8 mph (downhill) pretty exhilerating, and slightly scary. However this in itself just serves to remind me what a different league professionals are in. Thor Hushovd on his way to winning a stage in the TDF achieved over 60mph downhill. Lunacy.
Today also provided a reminder of how quickly it can go wrong health wise, when we cycled passed a cyclist being loaded into an ambulance, with his bike (nice carbon looking one) in a pile on the side of the road. I hope someone was able to recover it for him, as I suspect the thought of losing his precious bike was almost as painful as whatever injury he got. Hope he's okay and the bike survived.
Personally I think that bike was probably toast, it looked like a carbon TT bike and as such probably doesn't take to well to crashes! There was something very very mangled that may have been a front wheel at some point.
ReplyDeleteYou were a picture of misery when I returned with the car though, although you could have finished on my bike, I did offer! ;-)