Crash

It is a sad truth, known to everyone who watches the Tour de France each year, that occasionally, despite the best will in the world, riders fall off. When this happens, there are unavoidable consequences. These may take the form of injuries and wounds. Sometimes, these are sufficient to force the rider to abandon the race altogether, or worse. The reason for this is that even with top level medical intervention, mystery salves and potions in white lunch bags, crashes, chutes, stacks, pileups, accidents and falls hurt. The lightest, skiddiest spill at 30 mph will remove enough skin to make sleeping impossible for several nights, whilst the inevitable impact will wrench muscles and joints even if a bone is not actually fractured. The human skeleton is a marvellously resilient scaffold, but crashing it onto the ground at speed has consequences.

Even for we mere mortals, road cycling is a reasonably hazardous pursuit, particularly when done properly. Golf is safer. Were road cycling as safe as golf, there would be far fewer bikes on the road every weekend. For every rider content to ride comfortably at a reasonable pace, there are another ten for whom this is missing the point. The modern road bike is light, stiff and aerodynamic: properties that induce speed. For many riders, that speed is The Point. Suddenly, a week of work, traffic jams, health and safety laws and the general compromises of responsible adult life melt away in a beautiful blur of speed. The only limits on that speed are one’s legs, skill and nerve, and many of us have no choice but to push these until we discover where the limits are.

The results can be painful…