Ouch! That hurt!

Dana and I went for our 50k loop ride this morning.  On the return leg I pulled at 40 kph (25 mph American) for about 10k.  At one of the few red lights I asked Dana if she was okay.  She replied, (gasp...) "that was Fast.  Real Fast" (gasp!).  Dana had just raced 9 boy riders up the Usery Pass hill (5k at 6% average gradient) beating all but 4.  Dana Rocks!

On the last turn before we arrived back at the RV park I went around the corner on a green light only to have the back wheel slide out from under me like I was riding on ice.  No ice here though.  I went down hard.  It was a slow-motion fall and when I hit the pavement I skidded for about 8 feet and bounced right up.  I picked up my bike and leapt to the sidewalk as the light was changing at the intersection.  I looked down and noticed that my rear tire was flat thereby explaining my fall.  Flat road tires are crap on turns (duh!).  It was just bad luck.  I thought I was slowing down but I figured it was the hard 40 kph pull that I did.  Turns out my tire was slowly deflating.  Bad timing.  I hope 2013 is  not a bad number for me.

The damage from the fall is limited to road rash and bruising on my right hip and some bruising on the inside of my left knee where my leg hit the top tube of my bike when I went down.  No big deal.  We roadies treat "raspberries" like badges of honour.  The bike is fine and so are my bike shorts.   If you're squeamish, don't look at the picture I have included in this post.

We'll take tomorrow off and go birding at the Gilbert Water Ranch.  Should be safe there....

Ciao!  Ride safe.

Changing a tube after the fall.  See, I'm still smiling....

Gratuitous photo of my "raspberry".....