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Seeing the dirt (on a TT bike)


Bianchisti

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having crashed a few motorbikes in my short life, any crash that you can walk away from (not stretchered) is a good one. If you're gonna ride a bike, you WILL fall off! Thought this one was quite funny!

 

But the relief was short lived. Within the first few miles of the descent we came up on a slow moving vehicle (an old beat up, dark blue 4x4 that I was about to become very intimate with), who started weaving across the lanes. We were cautious at first, not knowing his intentions, and after some time it seemed as if he had realized we were there was moving over to let us pass. Paul Ambrose was in front, and he tried to make the pass when the vehicle suddenly swerved back towards him. A bicycle’s brakes are not very effective at 70km/h, but he slammed on his as hard as possible and started weaving out of control. I was just behind him (and a triathlon bikes brakes are even less effective), and thinking he was going to crash in front of me, I swerved left onto the other side of the road just as the driver decided it was time for him to turn left into a small dirt road. Some of the worst accidents are the ones you can see happening, but there’s nothing you can do about it. This was one of those.

 

"For what seemed like minutes, I was hard on the brakes, I could see the dark blue car in front of me and I could see the road coming to an end. As I hit the dirt road, there was no more control over my bike, and still travelling at a fairly brisk speed, I had to choose between ditching myself onto the ground and risk sliding underneath the car, or just plain smacking into the side of this solid immovable object. I chose the former, and although the outcome was rather painful, it turned out better than expected. My bike ended up underneath the car, but I was fortunate to come up just short (guess all those crashes off the dirt bike came in handy), with a fair amount of road rash to my hands, elbow, knee (more like a big hole), hip and ankle, but thankfully no major injuries. After a few choice words to the driver, I dusted myself off, retrieved my bike (also still in working order), and finished the last 1,5hrs of my ride. A close call that could so easily have derailed a whole year’s plans, narrowly averted."

 

 

Read his blog here if you're still with me:

http://www.raynardtissink.com/news_article.asp?ID=163&MicrositeID=2

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