Unfortunately no one took pictures

The bike ride today was promised to be a short one. It was not, I've learned that whenever a ride is meant to be short (and in my mind sweet) someone gets lost, there's a nasty wind in all directions, someone didn't eat all day, someone is grumpy, or someone didn't have her cycling shoes and pedals set up. Today, although we did have a wind blowing from the northeast and southwest, it was the multiple crashes that slowed us down. Martin went first around a curve that had too much gravel. He slid across the road and into the ditch with, aside from the handlebar tape being obliterated and the chain coming off, his bike going largely unscathed. He, however, wasn't so lucky with ripped shorts and scratches and scrapes all the way down his left leg. All this at about the half-way point.

Once we got back into town and mere blocks from where the ride was to end we came to a three-way stop. Seems that after all the waiting and bitching about my clipless pedals* not being here, the second ride with them meant that I'd forgotten that my shoes were attached to my bike and after narrowly missing Martin's back tire, down I went. Unfortunately, I learned how to clip out while laying in the street and it's really not that hard once the panic sets in. 'Turns out my chain came off too, but since it's fallen off before (what's up Masi?!) I could get it back on in record time. According to those who witnessed the fall, it seemed that I made sure that my knee took the hit with the pavement and not the bike.

Now I can hardly walk.


*I bought mine off of ebay and that's where all the bitching came from. It took the seller a -month- to mail them to me...I still need to leave a bad rating for him.