Versus has an ad for the Tour de France targeting a low-road demographic. "Next time you're in your car," an English-speaking rider intones, "at 50 mph, strip down to your underwear and jump out the door — and that's what it's like to crash in a professional bike race."
[Update 7:20 a.m. July 14: I have since learned that the intoning voice belongs to Jonathan Vaughters, directeur sportif for Garmin Chipotle.]
This afternoon I performed the extremely slow-speed equivalent. At this left turn, which I've made dozens if not hundreds of times, my back wheel slid out and I bit pavement. So what if I was going 1/10 as fast as the rider referred to in the ad. My road rash is still impressive even if it's not uncomfortable and my kit was appropriately underwear like. My right foot popped out immediately and my left came out with little effort. Only one water bottle came out that I was able to quickly grab and run to the curb. Evans Road is not heavily trafficked so I was not at risk of having any body or bike parts crushed.
The frame, tires and wheels appear to be fine. Road conditions were great. I wasn't on paint (Phil Liggett warned about that during Saturday's rain-soaked stage), the weather was dry, dry, dry and the surface on this recently repaved road is practically virginal. The intersection is near the more or less flat top of a long hill and I had slowed considerably to let a car pass before I turned. The only thing I can think of is that I dropped too far left for the turn at too slow a speed.
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6 comments:
Glad you came out without much discomfort! Nice neighborhoods for riding, plenty of tree-lined streets.
What a coincidence. I was just looking at your blog. It sounds like you had a productive cycling week. In fact, the tree-lined street I was turning on to has bike lanes. Thanks for the good wishes.
Productive? Just logging miles, building base. Wish I was fast - all in good time. Patience is difficult for me! ;-)
Glad to hear there's no permanent harm, to you or the bike. I've fallen over a few times at slow speeds, and I always get exactly the same mental message: "Awww...crap."
Oh how I love Google street view! I was able to see where you fell in 360 degree panorama. Glad you're okay! As my one recent(ish) fall resulted in a broken wrist, I sort of assume the worst about everyone else's falls too.
In case the post wasn't clear, I was turning left from Evans to Dynasty. I'm sticking with the theory that I put a little too much power into the pedals while moving a little too slowly while leaning a little too far to the left.
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