Thrills and spills - some bicycling adventures

So another post a day November dawns and I see that the last time I managed to post anything was last December. I guess if nothing else it forces me to engage with this corner of the internet and come up with some ideas for posts - although since I re-started keeping a diary last year, there are significant calls on my creative thought processes (such as they are) already. But we will see how it goes.

As the title indicates, I am still riding my bike although since my last foray onto Alsafastories, I have acquired a smart new Mountain Bike - currently the bathroom in the spare bedroom/office now houses my road bike and two mountain bikes (as well as the “new” cat’s litter tray and food bowl). So we are not wanting for bicycles (or indeed cats as Minnie still rules the roost in the rest of the house whereas Barbie has the office and the garden).

Whilst mountain biking at the new Mushriff Park MTB track has taken a front seat in my biking endeavours over the last 5/6 months I am still road biking and took part in the Spinneys 2nd Build Up Ride (45km) on Sunday. Sadly I managed to fall off! My first crash since a taxi driver decided to open his door just as I was riding past his (parked) car when I was a student back in Nottingham. The intervening years have not made me any more elegant in involuntary dismounting of bikes and on this occasion I was happily minding my own business in  the middle of a bunch towards the end of the ride when the chap in front of me caught the back wheel of the guy in front of him and went straight down in front of me leaving me no where to go at around 30kmh, so down I went landing on my shoulder/hip with the cyclist behind me crashing on top of me so I ended up pinned to the track with someone on top of me. Very painful indeed. Fortunately I eventually managed to get back up and with the help of one of the other fallers managed to get my front wheel straightened and limped to the finish (although my gears kept on slipping so will need to fix the derailleur I suspect).

I did have the presence of mind to stop the time on my Garmin and re-start when I eventually got going again so  - absent the crash - had managed a 29 kmh average which was pretty respectable given the complete lack of training I had managed since the previous ride in September. The bumps and bruises are gradually abating so hopefully I will be back on my bike by the end of the week although I suspect I will be a little more circumspect when riding in a group on my next road ride!