I went out on my bike this morning, despite having a bad cough, because I am bloody hard like that !

Anyway was really quite enjoying the ride, weather was good, little traffic and I am getting used to being on my Specialized bike (it is a bit of a thorough bred for a heathen like me, and also to be honest, I am not the ideal shape for a cyclist, so there must be quite a strain on the poor chassis!!)

I knew I needed to do around 35 miles to keep up with my training schedule and was going along very nicely thank you. And then it happened! At the end of last week, I had new pedals put on the bike, and they meant that I now have to 'clip' my shoes into them in order to ride. So new pedals and some very smart new cycling shoes - which luckily have little 'lifts' in the back for when I am walking towards the bike!

So I am approaching a t-junction after about 22 miles, fairly relaxed, humming some Bee Gee's tune to myself and working out whether I need to stop or can I slow myself down enough to not have to 'unclip' a shoe at the junction. Well I am not sure if it was the Bee Gee's tune or not, but whatever it was I miscalculated badly, I had arrived right at the white line of the t-junction, there was way too much traffic to make a crossing, and I had made the fatal mistake of not 'unclipping' my right foot.....

I slowly, very slowly started to topple to my right, making a couple of frantic but futile attempts to unclip my shoe, but realised as I passed the 60 degrees that nothing was now going to stop the fall ! I hit the tarmac, as the line of traffic passed by in front of me! I could not bring myself to look up at the drivers, as I knew they had to be pissing themselves laughing, I know that I was and I was lying on the tarmac!

As you do in such a situation, you rapidly unclip your shoe and jump up as fast as possible, hoping that any new comers to the scene will have missed your pathetic fall ! And once the traffic had cleared, your peddle like hell for at least two miles, to make sure you are as far away from the scene as quickly as possible - for no apparent reason at all other than the further away you are the more you can forget it ever happened!

Shocking......