After section two of the bike ride we had a slight problem. We were cycling along when accident occured. We’d turned off a side road onto a main road. Then, after about 400 yards we turned back onto a side road.
The road was much like any normal country B road. Narrow, not great to ride on, but, you know, ok…
We were in the middle of a very large pack of cyclists. They were all motoring after the stop we’d not long had. This is important as we weren’t alone, there were loads of other cyclists with us!
I was ahead and my girlfriend was behind, only a few feet. In front of me was some cyclists and two cars. The cars were coming towards us. There was a Ford Fiesta, and a dark blue, Citreon Xantia, P Reg…
I cycled past them and thought that the Citreon had come a bit close to me. I cycled on for about another mile or so. I started to go up a hill and when i got to the top i turned to see how my girlfriend was going. I looked back and she wasn’t there. I pulled over and stopped for her. Normally she would appear withing a few seconds. But as i looked back i couldnt see her.
I waited, and waited. Not at any point did i think that she’d been hit by a car!!!
Eventually i saw her cycling towards me. Only when she got to the top of the hill did she explain what had happend.
She was just behind me as we approached the cars. I passed the Citreon, but she said, as she was going past him/her, the wing mirror tapped her handle bars. It was just enough though for her to get “wobbled”. The wobble turned into a tumble. The tumble turned into a fall which resulted in a close incounter with a ditch.
The ditch was at the side of the road. She tumbled in and wasn’t able to get out. The bike was wrapped around her. No matter what she did she couldn’t get up. The Citreon driver just drove off. The second car driver, the Fiesta driver, made sure she was ok.
All this time was cycling on, without any knowledge it has happend.
Eventually she got up. No really injuries, just a few cuts and bruises on her legs.
I was told that if I had seen it happen i would have found it funny. I think more likely i would have had one or two words to say to the citreon driver…
This part of the ride was the worst part. Here we saw a accident. Someone had fallen off their bike, or something. Either way they were not in a good state on the side of the road. We cycled past quickly, not wanting to make a seen. Further along the road we heard and then saw an abulance which must have been on route to make sure all was ok.
We got to our third stop point.
It was at a pub called the Three Horse Shoes.
There was some light entertainment at the pub. It wasn’t really what you needed when you’d just ridden goodness knows how many miles.
They were police women giving out penalty charges for wearing too much lycra or having an old bike, stuff like that…
Not sure how much this person was sponsored, but i hope it was a lot…!
Here we had a Mars bar each and took on a load of fluids. Not sure how long we had left. However we were in good spirits and feeling like we were going to have no problem to finish.
We started off the ride and soon after cycling the cramp started to kick in. There was only one thing for it…
The next section of the bike ride involved tears, sweat, blood and victoria sponge cake…
This was the last stop point before the finish line.