Riding home yesterday early evening (5ish?) from the Hawthorn velo
after a couple of hard efforts, with a training partner (after having
cheerfully ripped Stu's legs off with sprintpasts!) - thinks me - I'm a
bit rooted and low on sugar, should take the safe/easy way home. So we
ride along the Yarra river path towards town, planning on then tootling
down Beach Rd to home.
I'm sucking wheel and not really concentrating, following Cam's wheel,
and we come to the bit of the track where it goes onto some floating
pontoons, there's a couple riding in front of us on hybrids I think,
with no helmets on. Cam swings past them and I blindly follow. I look
up just as we pass them and *bang* I run into an oncoming rider.
Entirely my fault, I'm on the wrong side of the bike track.
The couple riding along stop (after he crashes into me as well!) and
check that we're both ok (myself and the bloke I ran into). I'm a bit
dazed, I think I landed head-first, and take a few minutes to check
everything's still mostly intact - collarbone still attached etc.
After I pick myself up off the ground (after hearing the quite
justified abuse from the other rider, yes, it was my fault!), having
checked that no major bones etc were out of place, I appologise to the
other rider and give him my contact details, and tell him that I'll pay
for any damage to his bike. We check it over and maybe there's a bit
of buckle in the front wheel - but I can't see it (Cam is a freak about
wheel true, I don't notice 2mm 🙂 ), and he's got missing skin and torn
knicks and jersey, and a scratched brake/shifter lever. It's a silver
Giant something (TCR?) with Shimano 550 wheels I think - but I'm a bit
dazed and not really taking a lot in. He rides away and Cam and I
continue - I've got at least a sprained finger (can't operate
right/front brake) and we take it -very- easy on the rest of the trip
home.
On getting home and having a bit of a sook, I check my helmet, one
totalled Met Stradavarius - it did its job, I definatly landed
head-first. The helemt is cracked completely (not that even a small
crack is something you'd continues to ride with) and is going in the
bin today after I've got a new one. No significant damage to the bike,
just a scratch on the right hand lever, and a few holes in one of my
jerseys. Other than a bit of stiffness today in a few places, and the
sprained finger, I'm ok.
I'm just waiting for the bloke I crashed into to call or email me (I
didn't get his details, was a bit stunned at the time and not really
thinking) to tell me what I owe him for his stuff - I hope he's
reasonable about it. He seemed ok when we rode off, so I think he's
not hurt.
Bugger ... would have been safer on the road!