What is your worst cycling experience?



Originally Posted by lance_armstrong .

Trying to climb Mt. Ventoux while passing a kidney stone.

Man that must of been one fast pedaling kidney stone if you couldn't get pass it!
 
Originally Posted by lance_armstrong .

Trying to climb Mt. Ventoux while passing a kidney stone.
I have passede one kidney stone in my life(that I know of) and it was so painful that I could not have ridden. I would have been lying on the side of the side of the road writhing in pain.
 
ha some great tales of crashes.

And I have had many - but I always come out unharmed - (It's a mind thing - when you are about to crash - embrace the experience, try and enjoy it, and whatever you do...save the bike!)

I did once however have a really painful and embarrassing crash. (on a warm summers day with lots of pretty girls bearing witness)

the situation was as follows.

I had my girl waiting for me in a central London park,
and a job came through.

I was to Deliver some gloves from a trendy fashion photoshoot, back to Russian Vogue

I got said gloves. put them in my bag...and got on my bike.
but here something went wrong. even though i was wearing gloves...

I started moving went very briefly no hands to adjust my bag, but when I went to put my hands back on the handlebars they somehow slipped over them,
now the only thing between me and the ground was my handlebars and the only thing left to catch them with was my face.
this as you can imagine didnt go well, while i didn't hit my head, I did a complete mr bean, trying to prevent the inevitable from happeneing.
I ended up on my back with my legs in the air, completely tangled up in my bike - with a big pain on my left leg / knee..

in front of lots of hot women

so i got up - got on the bike - and quickly started riding (this is the best thing i have found to do in a crash - ride it off, and if you get back on your bike quickly enough you can trick your brain and body into thinking it didn't happen - like the 3 second rule with food).

I got to Russian Vogue and could feel there was wet in my trousers (hadn't looked yet - never look!)
I limp through the lobby - in the lift....deliver the bloody gloves....
on the way out I notice ive left a genuine trail of blood in their lobby and lift.

- This can't be good - I think.
so i cycle back to the park - and with my girl there i lift my trousers and witness the massive whole in my leg, and deep gouges
called control - and signed off for the day.

as i said - multiple crashes - iv'e flown like superman, skidded along tarmac, hit things, been hit by things.... at various levels of speed...

but this one...involving nothing but myself and while traveling at about 5mph was the most painful.
and resulted in the greatest injury.
 
Originally Posted by lance_armstrong .

Trying to climb Mt. Ventoux while passing a kidney stone.
I had a kidney stone hit while I was out back building a shed. Naturally I was using power tools home alone and decided to have a few cold ones to keep me safe. My back started to bother me and I thought I must have hurt it moving lumber around. Eventually I was on the ground curled up in pain until my daughter got home and found me. She took me to the emergency room where I was treated as a drug addict seeing as I showed up in the ER reeking of beer and shouting for pain killers.
 
Only started riding a road bike a few months ago, but luckily I haven't had any bad crashes or the like. I do seem to be bad luck for my friend Charlie because he has fallen twice while riding with me. The last time was when we were passing some people on a local trail and this couple was letting their kids walk directly in the middle of the trail. I passed without issue but his wheels dropped off the side and when he tried to get back on the pavement, he went over sideways. Scraped up his knee, elbow and shoulder pretty badly and banged his head on the pavement, but his expensive helmet kept him safe thankfully. Of course, the (non-english speaking) couple grabbed their kids and ran off without so much as an apology. To make matters worse, my friend and I, plus another helpful cyclist are trying to get his stuff together and get him off the ground when another group of cyclists come through and start yelling at us to clear the trail, while almost hitting the dude laying bloody on the ground. It's amazing how bad some people's manners are.

My worst road experience was on my first decently long ride. At this point, I was still a beginner and my longest ride was maybe 35 miles. Got 3 other friends and went on a nice ride up into DC and all around the city. I woke up late and didn't have a chance to grab breakfast that morning, so I went equipped with a camelbak of water and a few gel packs. We were on about mile 45 when I started getting really tired and cotton mouthed, all the while my friends are pulling away on the trail. Reached for my water tube and got a mouthful of air. Camelbak was empty. Reached back to find I was out of gel packs too. Not good, I was bonking HARD. Ended up slowing down to less than 10 mph and seriously thought I was about to just pass out and fall off the bike. Thankfully my friends stopped to go to the bathroom and I bummed some water and energy chews off them. Gave me enough energy to go the last 5 miles to the car. Never again will I be unprepared for a long ride, and I'll always carry more snacks and water than I need.

Worst mountain biking experience (two part story):

Two years ago, a friend and I started getting together to ride a local park singletrack every once in a while. People go both directions on this trail so you gotta be careful around sharp turns. Usually there are signs telling you to slow down, but some there aren't. We're getting towards the end of the trail and it has a few short switch backs. The last one goes up over a hill while making a sharp right turn, then down hill on the other side. My buddy is right in front of me and he goes up and over the top, but slows down in case there are people coming. No sign on this turn of course. He takes it too fast, hits a root and goes over the bars. He hasn't ridden in a while and this is his first time with clipless pedals, so it was quite a wreck. I was laughing until I saw him sitting holding his shoulder and unable to move. He apparently landed hard on his shoulder and broke his collar bone in two places. It was maybe 3/4 of a mile walk back to the cars and then a long wait while his wife/dad came up to get him since his car was a manual trans.

Fast forward to last year, I'm riding with the same friend on the same trail. Now I didn't realize this until I got to the trail, but my brake pads front and rear were pretty much toasted and would barely slow me down when riding. More like coasting brakes, wouldn't even lock up the tires on dirt. But whatever, I ride anyway. I get pretty far ahead of my friends and I'm cooking towards the end of the trail. I go around a hard right turn and realize I'm going a bit too fast before I hit a root and all of a sudden I'm airborne. I go over the bars, landing straight on my head before I tuck and roll into the woods. I get my wits together and untangle my legs from the bike, noticing a small puncture on my leg probably from a stick. Sat there for a bit making sure I didn't have a concussion or anything. Finally I get up to get back on the trail and see my front wheel is completely bent to the point where it won't even turn. Awesome. I sit and wait for my buddy for at least 15-20 minutes and he never comes around. This is when I noticed that I cracked my helmet in the fall. I also happened to notice it's the exact same spot where my friend broke his collarbone the year before. Somehow I got 'lucky' and landed on my head instead? But yeah, another walk back to the end of the trail, but instead of wheeling two bikes, I was carrying one on my shoulders. Hopefully this year I'll master that trail and can actually finish it again haha.
 
Originally Posted by kdelong .




I have passede one kidney stone in my life(that I know of) and it was so painful that I could not have ridden. I would have been lying on the side of the side of the road writhing in pain.
I was actually recovering from a very bad cold when I flew to France with friends. I was still recovering from the cold, and stupidly assumed that the growing pain in my lower back and groin were a side effect of the cold and being a bit dehydrated. The dumbest part about the whole thing is that I'd passed kidney stones 3 times in the past 10 years, and I should have realized what was going on. Just goes to show that even if you feel like ****, you don't want to miss out on a great bike ride with friends.
 
This is going to be in chronological order:

6 years old, the training wheels came off and I was learning to ride the alleyway behind our house, which was paved. I lost control and ran into our grouchy neighbors motor home (prize posession) while he was waxing it (who waxes a motor home???). I waited for him to go off, but he picked me up, put me back on my bike and gave me push. He was shockingly nice about it.

23 years old, riding bike on my way to cater for a double, 10 hour shift. I hit a chunk of concrete in the road, flew, landed hard and broke some ribs. Didn't have health insurance so had to just go to work and suck it up. I couldn't even raise my arm above my head for 6 weeks.

25 years old. A woman in a fully loaded BMW, talking on a phone pulled out in front of me, I hit her hood and flew. I wasn't wearing a helmit :( I ALWAYS wear one now. landed on head, lost conscousness and had 10 stitches down to the bone...but luckily it was right in front of an emergency room. Some EMTs had just finished dropping someone off so they wheeled me right in and I got a bill for $600 (and this is in 2000). The only witness thought I might have ran a red light (which was BS...who sails through a solid red going full speed?!?!) so when the woman learned this, her lawyer husband sent me a letter saying they would pay for the amublance bill and give me $200 to repair my bike even though damage was double that (luckily i had insurance and they paid) and if I wanted to take them to court, they'd counter for the damage to their cherry BMW....also, when I came to, the woman, was contemplating applying direct preasure to my head wound but didn't have the nerve and she said "oh my god, I hope you don't have AIDS..."

36 years old: family of 5 or 6 stepped out into traffic right in front of me as I was riding my bike to a running race...tried to stop on some old light rail tracks, whiped out in front of a populated cafe to the sounds of (ooohhhh....oooooouch). Had road rash, minor hip bruising and my elbow was gushing blood badly. I totally agree with whoever else on here said just pick yourself up and keep riding...which I did...made it to the race, still bleeding and in shock. Came in third, but, missed being second by 3 seconds....wonder if the slight blood loss, shock and bruising cost me that....
 
One time I was super cocky and made fun of my brother and uncle for going so slow. In less than 20 seconds I wiped out. I learned some humility.
 
I have heard many stories about the cyclists getting hit by a car. I have never experienced something like this. My worst cycling experience was getting hit by another cycle. I feel off the cycle and my leg was broken. I was hospitalized for 4 weeks. I was not able to ride again for 4 weeks! I will consider that as my worst cycling experience ever.
 
It was probably an accident I had recently. A car hit my front wheel with its back ones. I have no idea how I managed to escape a head on collision but I did. My front wheel fell off and I hurt my groins and my chest region. It sounds worse than it was but nevertheless it is the worst experience of mine if you exclude the fact that some scum-bag stole my bike.
 
I'm pretty fortunate in that so far, I haven't had anything that I would really deem a bad experience. Friends though back home have had all manner of bad cycling experiences, from being verbally abused to even being clipped by a car and having the car just drive off, and not even offer assistance or check to see if my friend was okay.

I think here in Japan people are very respectful of cyclists - so many people ride that it's not really an issue. But in my home country I think there's a big "cyclists versus motorists" issue, where motorists seem to think they own the road (even the bike lanes, ugh!) which makes me less keen to ride there when I am back...
 
my fall
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I've just remembered what my worst experience on a bike was ... (how could I forget!)

Our Brad had just won the Tour de France and Cav had taken the final stage -again! It was a sunny day and a mate had cycled over so we decided to go and do a hilly little local loop to celebrate.

We cycled along the A646 to Mytholmroyd, a couple of flat miles. We were only doing about 15 mph but I seemed to be struggling to stay with my mate. I probably needed a while to warm up?

We turned right and soon passed the sign marking the start of the Cragg Vale climb. It ascends 968 ft in 5.5 miles, a mere 3.3% average. It is not a hard climb, with only a short section of about 8% midway.

Suddenly, Cragg Vale morphed into Alpe d'Huez and my mate became Contador! Effortlessly, he danced on his pedals and sprinted away from me on the intimidating gradient.

Reality check: Er, no, this was Cragg Vale, and the cyclist disappearing into the distance without even trying was my mate. I was terribly out of breath and gasping on the early 2% slopes. I was riding in a tiny gear and only doing about 2 mph. Something was wrong - I felt like I was dying on my bike!

The rest of the climb was awful and it took me nearly an hour. I rested at the top and then carried on to complete the rest of the 19 mile loop, got home, and collapsed in a heap on the stairs leading up from my kitchen. My pal made me a big mug of tea which I barely had the strength to drink.

Those of you have looked inside my 'GWS' thread will know what had happened ... I had developed a DVT (blood clot) in my leg, which led to a pulmonary embolism (feckin' big blood clot in my lungs!) - I literally had nearly died on my bike!

I ended up getting very ill and being carted off to hospital.

I've been terribly breathless on my bike lots of times, but normally it is after doing something silly like dragging my overweight body up a 20% climb. Experiencing it doing 2 mph on a tiny drag was no fun at all!
 
In 1995 during Paris Brest Paris I was with the lead group arriving at the first control in 5:53 (Villaine was 141 miles that year). I flatted. I chased like a stupid fool for hour upon hour in 95F heat (84H group). Entering into a quaint hilltop village town at around 240 miles, with fans lining the street on both sides, they were going bonkers for me as I was only about a minute or two behind and they could see how hard it was. I stupidly jumped on a big gear and immediately tore my posterior cruciate ligament. It just snapped. Loud. The leaders in my group did sub 50 hours.

I went back 20 years later and did a good ride although not strong enough to go with the real racers, I finished pretty fast at 54 hours.

I've had all sorts of **** break or crashes from other riders going down or going across icy bridges and crashing but these kind of scars heal.
 
Have had my share of spills and crashes, but the weirdest was while mountain biking down a steep single track in heavy brush. I'll just say that I no longer wear hoop earrings while mountain biking. :)
 
Well, being pushed to the opposite side of the road by 2 teenagers while racing cars. Luckily I wasn't out there by my own, but with a bunch of friends, one of them was on a motorcycle, he chased the guys, made signs to a police stop for help, and they could help us out. Fortunately, I had not even a scratch, just some bruises and muscular pain, but I had to deal with parents, teens, and law. Not a nice experience for sure.
 
I tried riding to a mountain biking trail once with my cousins. I was a first-timer. I forgot to brought my elbow pads and forgot my knee pads. The trails are so difficult for me. I fell down a couple of times and wet myself. In the end, I just gave up and walked instead.
 
Mine's pretty common. I fell down my bike while riding it. I think I remember getting a few scrapes and bruises. Probably because I wasn't wearing any of the protective gear back then. It sounds ordinary, but getting wounded on your knees and elbows is actually painful once you experience it.
 
I had installed hydraulic disk brakes on my Redline CX bike and was riding on some pretty hard stuff. While riding down a long descent there was a group of newbies coming up. I stayed to the right though the smooth trail was on the left. After the group finally passed I was braking for a section as the last member of the group passed. I was going to pull over onto the smooth side. With my hand on the front brake the front wheel hit a rain rut. This made me grab the brake against my will and the front wheel stopped dead at 20 mph. This launch me and bike straight up into the air face first. But the hill was steep enough that I was pretty high in the air - maybe 10' - and I was able to roll onto my side before I hit. With a giant thud the bike fell on top of me.

The Hispanic kid says, "Umm - are you OK?"

"AM I OK???" rang off of all the surrounding hills echoing for several seconds. I kicked the bike off of me and got up, checked the bike and then checked me. I had cut my right middle and third finger and it looked like I was bleeding pretty good but actually it didn't hurt and though from a distance it looked like a lot of blood it wasn't. I carried on down the hill and back home. I hope the kid wasn't dissuaded from riding after that demonstration.