Well it had to happen some time. Had my first crash of the year near the end of this ride, exactly one week before my first audax of the year... exactly as I did last year, only one week short of a year ago and only half a mile away from the exact same spot where I had my last fall.
The Kingsway CC had its best ever turn-out of 26 riders today, despite the icy conditions, so we split into two groups. A "fast" group and a "try to stay on your bike group", which I naturallly gravitated towards. There had already been 4 falls just getting to the start, so it was always going to be interesting. We were all heading up Upton Hill again today, which made my efforts midweek pretty pointless - though at least I now knew I would make it up in one go. The "fast" group of 14 riders headed off first through the estate - at about 1mph on the ice. I led the other group out the long way onto the Bristol Road, determined to take the safest route possible, staying on main roads as much as we could.
Was pleased to get up Upton Hill in 8th place of the 12 in our group, and enjoyed a nice scenic, easy paced ride through Painswick and Stroud to the canalside cafe at Saul Marina where we stopped to thaw out and consume cake... lots of cake. Then came the winding country lanes through Elmore towards the Pilot Bridge at Hardwicke. Even though it was a few degrees above zero and the sun had been shining for hours, we managed to find all the dark spots where the ice had still not melted. First Lisa had a spill when her rear wheel just went from under her without warning. She was OK, and got straight back on. Then it was my turn. Just before we got back to the main roads near the Pilot Bridge at Hardwicke, I took my eye off the road for a second or two for the first time in over 30 miles, at the sight of an ambulance with blue flashing lights and an upside down car in the hedge..... and over I went on a patch of black ice with a crash and a nasty slide on my side. I brought down Des behind me too, and we were lucky to avoid a multi-bike pile-up.
Two things I learned from this .... (1) Never lose concentration even for a second in icy conditions like these. A second is all it takes. (2) Whilst I would defend the right of free speech of the anti-helmet brigade ("Je suis Charlie" etc), thank goodness I didn't let them pursuade me not to wear mine today. The side of my head hit the ground with a mighty crack when I went over, but I'm as right as rain.... a walking advert for cycle helmets. Nothing worse than a sore hip and a bruised ego.
So, although we never met up again with the fast group today, we still know of at least 7 crashes on the ice .... over a quarter of the field went down today! Now I just have the small matter of 2 x 100km audaxes in the next 2 weeks in these conditions to attempt to keep up with the Century a Month Challenge. Ah well, What could possibly go wrong? Another 35 miles done today.
Be safe, everyone. Cheers. Donger.
)but was glad i didn't hurt it.
