The Mark of a True Cyclist...In My Eyes

I saw pictures and even saw some people face plant in front of me without a helmet on group bike rides. At this point, it has not happened to me, but I knew that eventually it would happen. I felt kind of invincible on my hybrid bike with its big tires and ability to go from road to dirt without an issue. I felt somewhat safe. And then I got my road bike.

And then, I got clips. Their have been multiple blog posts and pictures and stories from people talking about their falls with the clips. In fact, it scared me to put them on, but I wanted to improve myself as a cyclist. With some advice, I bought the mountain bike clips to get me started so that I can easily get in and out of the clips if something went wrong. Well, in theory, it would.

So, I knew my day would come and unfortunately, it happened on a nice bike ride with the giant (my second or third ride ever on Cylo). He's now officially moved here and this was our first bike ride together in Houston. We have always biked in England, but not in Houston.

Since I have my first triathlon coming up very soon, I wanted to test out my suit on the bike. Now, I need to test it out running and swimming.

The giant and I just having a nice bike ride on a gorgeous day.

We wanted to do something easy, no more than seven miles. I opted out of dropping into Brays Bayou trail and just go around Hermann and Rice. I'm not sure why exactly. I guess it had to do with me totally forgetting about the 5-6 hour traffic. Stupid idea #1 of this bike trip. I stopped at a light and was about to push the button when I realized that I was not close. Of course, I was still clipped in and kind of found the pole before I went down on the cement block. That was a close call.

I decided to go a different way and into Rice University, which confused me. We got to an area with a back up of cars and I decided that we should go on the sidewalk to get around it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Stupid idea #2. Believe me, I paid for it. Then, the sidewalk ended and because I'm a complete moron, I forgot that I do not have a hybrid bike anymore. Stupid idea #3. Road bike is called road bike for a reason. Since it had been raining, the ground was soft like quicksand. It sucked my wheels in and down I went hard. Cylo landed on top of me slamming into my knee. I had no time to react or attempt to get out of my clips. It took awhile to even get up.

I dusted off my pride and body and got back on the bike, because that's what cyclists do. I limped a turn of the wheels and we were off...slowly...very slowly...painfully slowly (literally and metaphorically). There was too much traffic and blockages and turns causing us to make last minute changes. We stopped at the Farmer's Market to see if they had any produce we needed; they didn't and it hurt to walk. Plus, I was just ready to get home and ice my knee. So, we got back on our bikes and headed home.

It took a couple of days to really just stop hurting when I walked. A nice array of hues formed and is still there today. I learned my lessons a plenty. I'm only thankful that the fall wasn't as bad as it could have been or what I have heard from others. So, now I at least feel like I belong in the cyclist club with my ever so slightly story of falling.

Oh and the giant still bikes better than me even on an old 60s-70s model road bike that didn't even fit him. Stupid short legs of mine.