Ouch, ouch, ouch!

I went mountain biking in the Blue Mountains this morning with Ian and a few of his friends. There were about eight of us in total.

We had to get up very early for a Saturday morning. Ian and I had to get up at 5am to get to Penrith for a six thirty train. A very funny thing happened on our way, along the motorway we were following a police car which was just travelling along. We then saw two cars parked along the hard shoulder and in front of the two cars were two guys who were fighting! They were shirt pulling and throwing punches. Needless to say the police car immediately put on the lights and pulled over. God know what the two guys were fighting about, Ian figures that they were probably drunk.

Once we started out on the bike ride, I was getting along quite well and flying down the track.

However, after about a couple of kilometres I came round a bend a little too quickly and came across some quite rough rocks. I managed to dodge the first few but ran into a bigger third one. My bike just gave way under me and sent me flying to one side.

Unfortunately the front wheel of my bike was buckled and a couple of spokes were broken as well. I was more annoyed that I couldn't go any further on the ride than of my injuries.

You can see the mess the fall made of my cycling shorts. Fortunately I didn't break any bones but I was quite badly grazed all over my right hand side.

I looked at my right arm after getting up and noticed the graze on the top of my arm and didn't think much of it. Ian then passed by and stopped to see if I was ok and then noted that the bottom half of my arm was bleeding.

I suffered a few more grazes on my chest, right side, hips, thighs and knees. Fortunately I didn't quite land on my head so there wasn't much damage to my cycle helmet.

My watch on my left arm was also a casualty. I managed to bend the clasp on the metal strap so had to have that repaired as well. I told Ian to carry on as I could quite easily walk back to the train station and then catch the train back home. Especially after we had got up so early, I didn't want to spoil his ride as well as mine.

I've managed to get my bike repaired already and that cost £60 for a new front wheel. They have replaced the old one with a much more sturdy wheel which should withstand much more punishment. My watch will take a little longer to repair as a new clasp will cost me £80 and needs to be ordered specially from Tag and won't arrive till Wednesday.

As Allen said to me later on at least the bike and watch can be easily repaired while I'll take a little longer to be repaired and can't just go and buy a new arm or hip.

I guess I'll have to take it a little easier over the next few days and be a little more careful in future. Still I was still lucky not to break a bone and don't mind the pain too much. Sleeping well tonight may be a different matter though!