A Lesson Learnt...

I tried a new route today, I headed east away from the moor and along the coast. It means riding on the main A39 for a couple of miles which is nice and flat and a good warm up just a bit busy. I turned off in Carhampton and headed up the hill to Blue Anchor, its short and sharp and gets the blood pumping. From there its a quick descent into the village over the railway line and onto the seafront. I was feeling good today, think I was starting to get used to the new bike set up and could feel the revolutions as I pedalled if you get my drift. Another up past the pub at the end, steep to start then it eases off and I got into a good rhythm and headed along the top towards the ancient port of Watchet, past the industrial sprawl of the paper mill down below me and down the hill towards the harbour.

A trip to Watchet apparently inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge to write the poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" but I'm sure Iron Maiden wrote it first. A lovely statue to commemorate the story sits on the esplanade but there is no mention of the Maiden, more on headbanging later on. I headed through Watchet and then the back road at Doniford to Williton, there was a bit of a headwind but I didn't mind I was enjoying the ride in the late winter sunshine.

Instead of sticking to the main road I took a detour a through the pretty hamlet of Stream, I think the definition of a hamlet is a place with no church but cigars or something like that. It was a couple of ups and down into Monksilver and up the hill and over the crossroads and down past the cider farm at Torre. After a quick breather at Cleeve Abbey it was back onto the main road at Washford.

Its a busy road but luckily today relatively traffic free and most of all its pretty flat, so I could actually get on the big ring and push for home. I negotiated the tricky bits and was going along quite well until I made the decision to get off the road and onto the cycle path in Carhampton. I slowed down to get off the road and wallop, the bike wiped out from underneath and I hit the deck with a thump. My head and shoulder took most of the impact, and Lance got scratched too. A nice man in a white van stopped to scrape me off the floor and check on me and a lovely couple who must have been behind me insisted on taking me home. Its nice to see the good side of human nature and I'm eternally grateful for their concern and kindness. My helmet did its job, its knackered now but I'm not, anyone who cycles who reads this take note, WEAR A HELMET ! Don't make your kids wear one and then not wear one yourself either.

My darling wife took me to the lovely new community hospital where they checked me over and told me that I'd badly bruised my shoulder and prescribed pain relief and told me it would probably get worse before it gets better, I hate pain nearly as much as hills and wind ;) but luckily thanks to my helmet I can sit here and reflect on a lesson learnt.

No stats yet, my computer was still on when I got a lift, top speed 50mph I wish !