Bob Goes BOOM!!!

Not a good day.

I was about 18-19 miles into a 30-mile ride this morning when I crashed. It rained last night, and the greenway was still sorta damp. I was riding about 14-15 mph on a section of the trail that was a wooden "boardwalk" over a semi-wetlands area. As I was turning to the right in a curve on the boardwalk, my front tire hit a bit of mossy, slimy stuff on the wood and went right out from under me. I went down fuckin' HARD, landing on my right hip and shoulder, banging my head, and scraping my left leg pretty bad. The worst part, because I was moving at a pretty good clip, was that I slid/scraped along the trail for some 10-12 feet. It was damp and slippery, which was in my favor. I was also lucky enough not to catch on any nail heads sticking up or splinters or anything, although I lost a bunch of skin on my right knee.

I want down so hard and so fast that one minute I was riding and in an instant I was on my back looking up at the clear blue sky. I thought for a second that I had broken my hip – the pain was searing. I screamed like a fucking banshee and started cursing a blue streak.

I laid still for a minute trying to figure out what had happened and what to do next. After about a minute, I decided I'd better get to my feet or it would only get harder to do so. I managed to put weight on my right leg, so lucky me, it wasn't broken. I limped around for a minute or two, trying to shake off the pain and checking myself out, then I hobbled over to my bike and picked it up. Didn't look too bad, considering. Looked better than I felt.

My knee was bleeding pretty good at this point. I took a big chug of water, cursed some more, then tenderly got back on the bike. Needless to say, I'll be riding a little slower on the way home.

About a half-mile further on, as I was riding, I got real thankful that I hadn't broken my hip (or anything else), considering I'm starting a tour in 2 days. Also, I was lucky enough to have my mobile phone with me in case something really bad had happened.

All of a sudden, as I was taking a curve to the left while doing about 9-10 mph on a paved portion of the trail, the goddamned front wheel went out AGAIN. This time I fell to the left, scraping up both hands pretty good, and banging my left shoulder. The left pedal got broken off the bike, and in the process, it tore my left shoe wide open, and along with it, my foot. Pretty good cut, too, started bleeding like a bitch.

I had a few small pieces of gravel in my hands, especially the left one. Can't ride my bike now because it only has one pedal -- not with the hills that are still between me and the house. I'm still 10 miles from home and now everything hurts. So I break down and call my buddy Greg to see if he can come pick me up.

On the way back to the house, I have Greg stop at Flythe's so I can put the bike in the shop for some surgery. I was expecting to have to leave the bike there, but within 15 minutes, I was out the door with it, all patched up and ready to ride. The bike, not me. I think I better take a day or two off…