it wasn't my fault

They say a sportsman should train his weaknesses and race his strengths.

My main weakness as a cyclist was climbing.  Short, steep climbs I was OK on as I had the power to get up them.  But at 6 feet tall and 70 kilograms I might have been light for the average Joe but quite chunky for a cyclist so the longer climbs really tested me.

So I regularly took on a training ride that involved two mountain passes over 5 miles in length and plenty of other shorter, sharper climbs.

Anyway, one Saturday morning as I was climbing the Bwlch mountain over to the Rhondda Valley, I was joined by a group of really fit looking cyclists, and it turned out they were from the Welsh triathlon squad.

Now, I've written about triathletes here before (see here) and their less than legendary bike handling skills, but these were elite athletes and I had to work hard as I stuck to the back of the group.

Cresting the mountain pass, I decided I needed to wrap up for the descent, and retrieved my wind jacket from my back pocket, unravelled it, put it on and zipped it up.  I could see that my actions seriously impressed the young cyclist riding by my side and must have inspired him to do likewise.

not me, but you get the gist

This, however, is where disaster struck!

Pulling his jacket out, he immediately lost balance, regained it and then lost it again as his lightweight coat flapped in the wind, and….

CRASH!!

Down he came.  I stopped as did the rest of the group and as they were gathering around to make sure he was OK, I gestured to the person nearest to him to somehow cover the unfortunate riders hand over.  But too late, and he saw the aftermath of his tumble.

Two of his fingers were clearly badly broken and facing in a direction that was clearly alien to them!  He spotted this, went immediately a whiter shade of pale and vomited!

One of the benefits of being schooled in the cycling club system is that you learn to do things like feed and put on or take off extra clothing on the go.  If you stop, you get left behind so they are skills you quickly have to learn, and the large group rides that were a staple of my youth were my university of bike handling!

I don't think my compatriot that day graduated!

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Today's video is explaining why you should buy a 14 year old camera right now.  And I mean RIGHT NOW!!!