Total: 1395km
Hard day. Pushed me to the limits today, as I had a nasty crash. I was riding down a bike path next to the princess fwy, which you could imagine is a long bare path with not much happening. The condition of the path was appalling to say the least, big cracks and pot holes throughout. As I was in a state of concentration manoeuvring around a poorly managed path, I had a collision with a stumpy waist height steel post. For the life of me I have no idea who would be so stupid and so disconnected from a cycling mentality, to design a bike path with a fat solid steel pole in the middle of the path. This is an Australian council practice, and part of another dreadfully over regulated system in our beautiful yet overly counselled society.
When I crashed I did a full back flip over the bike. I still remember seeing the wheel and then the air as I landed. I landed smack bang in the middle of the lower section on my back. This hurt like crazy. My shoulders, on both arms, went completely dead. I believe I would have sublaxed at least one of them. I am hoping I haven't ruptured any tendons in my shoulder with the history of surgery. I also damaged the surrounding parts of my left knee, which swelled up like a balloon not long after the fall.
After managing to finally pick my self up I looked at the bike with even more frustration. Looking at the long empty path made me think even more about the idiotic person to position this pole. A fellow cyclist came by and asked how I was. After a brief pause he started to vent his frustration for this pole, as he himself has also come off as a result of it. The only explanation we had was that council put it there so cars couldn't drive on it. Which then made me even more angry at council as i thought why would a car drive on a hidden bike path directly next to a freeway. This guy was very helpful and rode with me for a few km after to make sure my bike was rideable.
In this situation I knew I was roughly 35odd km from Melbourne. I knew I had at least 50 to go for me to pull into Geelong. The thought entered to turn around and go back into mums for a good feed, rest, get the bike checked and go see a doctor. I had to quickly dispel this thought as I did not want to enter into a comfort zone back in Melbourne, wait potentially a few weeks to get my bike fixed, listen to my mum say finish the trip and put up with other discouraging remarks from people within my inner circle back home.
I kept pushing to Geelong. To worsen my luck for the day I then copped a flat tire next to the princess fwy. This was very annoying. I had to take off all my gear, after just putting it back on after the crash and then I had to get into my bag for the spare tube and tools to change the tire. I had to use my buggered shoulders, which still had a feeling if numbness, to use my hand pump and get the tire back to a reasonable pressure to keep going. As I was doing this I had hundreds of large trucks drive by causing more irritation as I tried to get the bike fixed.
After finally getting it done I continued riding. This was riding straight into a solid head wind. This made me go into a state of tranquility, surprisingly enough, as it made me realise that if anything were to happen to me I was physically and mentally still capable of controlling the situation. I only had my self to get out of it and I wouldn't of had it any other way. I didn't have to worry about stress or calming the situation for any other person, I just kept going and knew it was up to me to get into town find a place and sort it out tomorrow.
As I eventually got into town I let a few close people know about what happened. These times are great to see who is important in your life and who isn't. This was really one of those moments. After also uploading something on social media you can notice feedback and in a sense it allows you to see immature people or people who are not necessarily supportive and perhaps jealous. Making comments unrelated to your well being and rather comments for self satisfaction. Despite this I was very comforted by the people close to me.
Tomorrow will check the bike out and get into a doctors, really hoping everything turns out ok.
Hey mate, how in the world could you not take notice of this pollard in the middle of what looks to me a decent cycle path. Hope you heal OK and be able to continue your trip
ReplyDeleteHey Werner, thanks for your message. If you ever cycle on this path you will notice it is very unsafe for road or touring style bike tyres. It has many cracks in the bitumen and if your wheels were to get stuck you would certainly know about it. As I was focused on avoiding these, perhaps the photograph attached does not show the condition clearly, the pole had caught me completely by surprise. With a full load for touring it was difficult to steer clear at the last minute. My pannier on the side had hit the pole, and a result of the pressure bent my forks in. The pole had many dints and scratches, from what I've heard had happened to a few others who have travelled down it.
ReplyDeleteI also realise that I was very unobservant and very dumb for riding into a pole. However this has not deterred me from contacting council to report the condition of the path and questioning the placement of this pollard.
ReplyDelete