I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

"Don't ride today," my wife tells me. "It's going to rain."

"But," I stupidly say, "I only need 22 miles to hit my first goal for the spring. If I leave really early, I can beat it. I'll stay away from roads, cars and the flood plains and stick to the paved trails. I'll only be, at most, 4 miles from the car and I can cover that pretty easily if it rains."

At roughly mile 15 the rain started. I turned around and, as fate would have it, I was four miles from the car. So I started heading back. The ride itself wasn't bad. The rain stung, but nothing too bad.

Then, turning off the trail I signaled that I was turning left, realized I was going a little too fast and I felt the tires slip. I hit, slid and was up looking at the jogger who was running in Khakis. Nothing hurt, other than my pride. I found the stuff that fell off or out of things attached to me and walked back to the car. The computer sensor was focused in and hitting the spokes and I'll have to replace my bar tape, but my noggin and body are in tact.

This was my first crash with the Specialized and, frankly, my first road bike crash. It's different than a mountain bike crash because of then nature. Most of my mountain bike crashes occured with me going forward because something happened with the front wheel.

I know people who have been through far worse crashes and I don't want to pretend like this was bad. It really wasn't. This really did feel different. And, oddly, it felt like a rite of passage. It's weird how relaxed I was about the whole thing. My brain just clicked off the list. Slipping? Check. Evasive maneuvers? Pointless. Go limp. Hitting road? Check. Sliding? Yep. Alright, that's done. Body in tact? Uh huh.

Slight bit of panic about the bike, though. Because if it was damaged, I'd have no bike until I got it fixed. That was a worse possibility than the road grit in my ass.

Enough whining. Pictures!


This is where I hit the road first, I think. Or where I slid the most.



Poor bar tape. I guess better that then my skin.



Really the only open wound. It's tiny. The rest of my body that contacted pavement has simple road rash.


Really, this is the worst part. Yes, discovering the road rash on my back while I was in the shower was an unpleasent discovery, this son of a bitch hurts a lot. And it bleeds like a monster.