Flames

Flames

I have never really crashed on a bicycle before in my life, until this trip. Now I crash so often that it is almost a lifestyle. My first crash was caused by a dog attacking me, on a steep and wet road, and while I was kicking him in the face. It all added up to crashy circumstances and made perfect sense that I would find myself skidding along the highway for an impressive distance. At that point we were riding in Albania and I decided to not ride clipped in to my pedals. I rode the whole way in my low top Vans just on my Look clip pedals. Super not ideal at all. Possibly why my left knee started to feel like it wanted to secede from my leg as a whole. Riding on the road in Albania was often more like mountain biking. Montenegro sported the craziest and least accommodating drivers and so again I chose not to clip in. It wasn't until Croatia that I felt good about being attached to my bicycle. Once I did that my crashes became sillier, but I also went down with the ship. Once in a construction zone I was looking back and so hadn't noticed Shannon stopping fully ahead of me and ran right in to her trailer wheel which sent me careening off into the ground. Yesterday I hadn't noticed a small curb-ito which just caught my tire enough to turn my wheel out from under me and send me quite heavily to the ground. The funny thing is that our trailers, once imbalanced, tend to add a lot of weight in the fall, thus body slamming the whole rig and us with it. It feels like a spiteful revenge on the trailer's part for our general rough treatment of them, but I couldn't prove it in a court of law. So yesterday, after 50 plus miles in over 100 degrees I, or my vindictive trailer, slammed to the ground and gave myself some sweet soreness of bruisy contusions. Luckily I am spry. I hope that I am spry. These crashes are adding up and are harder to shake off. Shannon's comment was, "now we're even" since at this point she has crashed three times as well. At least I can be happy for that.




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