That morning after breakfast I went to my room and got changed. I put plenty of liniment on my legs, as does one other leader. Mr G.Buss. A great guy with a good cycling head and always wearing a smile.
Today he and I would lead a medium group. Heading out to the Panarama view I felt strong on the first hill.
I lead the group to our first gathering spot before we set off again. Göran asked me to lead the way and I did. My new wheels are fast, they help me just roll away from other riders. So I waited a little so the group caught up. We rode forward on slightly undulating and winding roads that are edged with trees and bushes, now again the Adriatic appeared down to our left.
With 18,3kms on the clock, I pressed down on the pedals and in a gentle right turn overtook the first of two riders infront of me. I looked back over my right shoulder and saw that the rest of the group were gathered. One more rider infront and I aimed to keep him company and chat. An innocuous left curve up ahead and I picked my line somewhere in the middle of my side of the road.
Without warning I got nervous for something, like a sixth sense, then I heard an odd noise from the front wheel: It became apparent afterwards that I had a front wheel puncture, the air sipping out a a slow rate. The roads in part are not smooth, but have a bumpy tarmac, and this must have made me not react to the flat that was occuring. As I leant the bike slightly to the left a sort of scraping noise that I now believe was the aluminium rim of the wheel sliding to the right against the tarmac.
It became apparant that the bike was sliding out from under me and, as it did I went down. I must have landed on my feet first, more correctly, the toes of my hard cycling shoes. follwed by my hands and chest as I tried to keep my head away from the road. My hands gave way and as my chest hit the tarmac my head followed through and I remember vividly the road approaching my face at high speed. I scrunched up my face for impact and felt how my nose, mouth and chin smashed into the ground so hard that my head bounced up again. I remember my head jolting up, then I blacked out ... I came to spinning fastly down the road sideways. Somehow my body had turned and I rolled with my feet toward the edge of the road and my head at the middle. I remember rolling precariously fast, spinning over and over till I came to an abrupt stop.
I stood up crouching, vaguely remember seeing other riders stopped behind me and looking .... I walked to the side of the road, called out to Göran and held on to the small wooden fence crouching down even further. As I held on I felt my teeth with my tongue ... blood was flowing from my face somewhere ...
I called to Göran, said there was a first aid kit in my bag. I was groggy, but I was also confused. Why isn't my nose broken? Why isn't my mouth completely smashed? How have I not lost any teeth???
It wasn't till the day after that became apparent. The very front of my helmet had taken the brunt of the blow and had split. Job done.
But on that road I felt extremely nauseaus. My temperature rose and I thought I would be sick.
It subsided, but then I felt like I needed to go to the toilet very badly.
The ambulance crew came.
Nothing broken, lots of plasters and a tetnes serum jab.
I was lucky, real lucky. Lucky to be writing this, lucky to be alive.
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