The Sunday ride

Today is forecast to be the last dry one for a while, so we thought we'd make the best of it and see the bluebells. I love the bluebells, but the pollen affects my chest.

The trails we lovely and dry, we've had very little rain this year. This encourages hooligan riding!! :) Which is why I'm sitting here in pain from body surfing down the fastest singletrack in Surrey :(

Jane had chosen a route taking us over towards Epsom race Course. The first part is one of my favourite rides for testing my fitness. I led the way up Staine street, which was dry enough to climb out of the saddle, I kept it steady to keep the three of us together. Paul was on his new bike and so was eager to attack and test it :)

So we kept together until the start of the 'longest singletrack in Surrey' where I moved over at the top to let Paul through, but he slowed and moved over to let me through :)

I accelerated hard along the 30 metre asphalt stretch by the house and launched off the step into the loose rocky stuff and big ringed it to the farm, where I saw a dog from the corner of my eye and eased a bit. I accelerated again into the twisty section. As I hit the straight section The bike suddenly veered up the banking, I pulled it back down to the straight but something was wrong. The front was sliding and twisting - then the sloooow mooooootion kicked in and the sound went. I could see that the front wheel was locked and sliding to the left - I thought, I'm going down. I looked up and because I was near the ground already, all I could see was a series of tree roots. So I tried to superman it :) I was pretty horizontal as I hit the ground.I felt my shins and knees bounce off every root as I twisted to slide on my back. Then normal speed and sound returned as my helmet hit the ground....ouch!

As I lay on the ground performing a quick triage :) I heard Jane shout look at the wheel. The front tyre was off and the inner tube which was still inflated was enormous, as big as a tractor tyre and wrapped around the forks :-o (no pictures I'm afraid as Paul and Jane were far to bothered about my well being - bless 'em) I'm sure had it been Paul or Jane the second thing I'd have done would be to take some pics ;)

I'm not sure whether the tyre wasn't seated properly or that I'd hit a rock or root and dislodged it, but this is what had locked the front wheel.

Next the pain hit me and I felt sick and and wanted to go to the toilet at the same time. This was my autonomic nervous system freaking out when the body dumps a load of hormones into the system. 'Dumps'being the operative word :) I think that this was probably my hardest crash ever. Later my gps showed my speed dropping from 32kph to zero in an instant :-O Better than any disc brake! lol!

Once the nausea had passed and I'd reseated the tyre. I was on the horns of a dilemma. Which was: a. being full of adrenaline and wanting to go hard. b. frightened that my tyre might come off again.

Ten minutes later we were hammering down the singletrack to Given's Grove :) This is super-fast and narrow. At the fastest point the owners of one of the local mansions has built a raised driveway across the track. We hit this flat out and took off,I skimmed across whole thing about three inches off the ground.......whoaaaaaa!!!

Ten minutes later I'm off the back on the slightest climb and everything's hurting :)

So, now I'm sitting here and slowly stiffening up. My left elbow won't fully extend and supination is very painful, I have bloody knees and shins,  scrapes and abrasions on my shoulders and scapulae and a huge lump on my right sacroiliac. The good news is that I'll have some fabulous scabs to pick later in the week! :)