Saturday, January 10, 2015

Hit by a car....

I've been told that if you ride enough you will one day get hit by a car. I guess my time was up. Last weekend on my Saturday morning training ride, I was about 4hrs (135kms) into my 4.5hr ride. It was almost 40 deg C and I was feeling pretty zoned and just keen to get home. I was riding the Seacliff foreshore road and probably doing about 37km/h when a douche bag just decided to turn into a car park without indicating or checking his blind spot. As I was in the aero bars I couldn't brake quick enough and just rode straight into the side of the car, then swerved to try and avoid anymore contact which took me into the curb and over the handlebars. It must have looked like an epic crash ;-)
I was on my feet straight away and quickly assessed the damage. Yep, I felt fine, nothing broken just some good grazes, but no stitches would be required. Sweet. Time to lay into the driver.
In the end the drive was really apologetic - as he should have been - and hung around to make sure I was OK and exchanged numbers with me incase I needed to contact him to make a claim. Another witness also stopped and passed on his number should I require a witness to the incident. The driver did try to pass blame and avoid responsibility, but he knew he was in the wrong and I'm sure was glad that I seemed fine and my bike was still in one piece.
Anyways, having the tenacity that I do, I wasn't going to let a few grazes finish my ride. I smashed out the final 30mins of the ride, clocking up I think 150kms or there abouts, and then I managed the 15min brick run to top the ride off :-) I just kept reminding myself that the Tour de France riders manage to smash out the whole TDF covered in grazes so I needed to toughen up!
Happy Riding!

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