Last night I had the most spectacular mountain bike accident in my own living memory…
I had to work late (another story for another time), so ended up cycling home in the dark. I work in a country estate with a road that winds through the middle of it, which I have ridden my mountain bike along for the last 4 years. About halfway out of the estate there is a really dark part of the road which is covered by trees, and has no lights for a couple of hundred yards in any direction.
So there I am, at about 10pm, tearing along this dark road and I see the flash of something in my headlamp… I hit the brakes, but whatever happened next isn’t really very clear in my memory (I don’t think the moment of accidents ever are).
Basically, in pitch darkness I cycled into a heavy chain across the road at about 25mph. After experiencing some kind of crunch, a sensation of flight, and thumping down head first in the road, I managed to stand up and realised what had just happened.
Strangely, my first thoughts were if I had broken anything - and I found myself patting my arms and legs to make sure. I think the reason I did this was because I fell off about 10 years ago and broke my collar bone and shoulder quite badly - and remembered that they didn’t hurt at the time. Something to do with adrenaline probably. I had this horrible thought that my leg (which was starting to hurt) was going to fold up or something.
So - I get up, untangle the bike out of the chain, and get back on it - all the time trying to figure out what the hell I’ve done to my right leg because now it’s hurting like hell. There’s a bit of blood on my trousers, but no tear… I managed to cycle home, but didn’t really realise how much I was shaking until I got in the door…
After W had finished being as shocked as I was, she started having a go at me… if I had hit the ground wrong I could have been laying in the middle of that chained road all night. She didn’t know I was on my way home, and even if she had gone looking for me, she wouldn’t have found me.
When I finally got my clothes off to have a look at what I’d done, I started to realised how lucky I had been… I have a lump missing from my knee (along with a puncture wound), and a bruise on the bridge of my nose, but otherwise I’m fine. My kidneys hurt a bit, and my wrists hurt a bit - but that’s probably from being wrenched from the bike and hitting the ground or something.
At work this morning they were asking if I was going to report it or make a claim or anything… I may report it, but I won’t make a claim because I don’t agree with the whole “blame society” thing. If I’d broken bones or something I might have thought about it, but not for being knocked off my bike.
So there you go… I live to ride another day - and my cheapo mountain bike survived the crash far better than me. I guess the crash must have been pretty damn violent - when I got home I discovered that the back light has been wrenched round in a circle…. the only way you could probably do that is ride into a brick wall.
I guess I need to go and buy a new bike helmet too. They’re only designed to take one big impact, aren’t they.