endorphin April 10th, 2009
This is my 3rd year of riding outdoor :)), I have had cycling friends fell because they forgotten to unclip when they come to traffic stop or crashed because someone clip someone’s back wheel or crash because of road condition. It’s not a nice scene when cyclist crashed. It’s certainly not pleasant to received crash news of fellow cycling friends.
In the 3 years, although I am do not have superior bike handling skills like the MTB bikers, I have silently thank God for I never fall because clip and never involve in any crashes. But all that has come to an end last night.
It was quite a last minute decision since work meeting end in time for me to prepare. I went to join the Thurs night ride at Putrajaya. Putra is a nice place to ride. The roads are wide, smooth, well lit,…etc. Despite giving it an hour for travelling, the journey was a stressful one. The traffic jam from IOI till the toll exiting the highway was bad. I made it to the ride at 7.05pm. Thanks guys for waiting. A quick setup, we’re on to the 7pm 35km. They did three loops at PICC climb to warm up before heading out. It was good. Made it back to the Dataran to regroup for 8.30pm loop.
We came out from the Mosque through Jbn Kementerian into percinct 1 and then a left turn. A little flyover climb followed. After that it was flat road. It was less than 5km into the 2nd loop. I noticed one of the two newbies was quite unstable. Riding in a group, she was swinging left & right, goyang goyang goyang. I took a right & went up to Don infront of the pack riding his MTB. Joked with him that I want to draft MTB. The next thing I know, the newbie pulled up on right side, came in to the line without hand signal. So, I dropped back. And……all of a sudden, this newbie was loosing control and BOOM, down she went. My mind went WT…can’t even complete the sentence, I was over her, endo & down. F%^& !!!! How the hell she can loose control on flat road at a speed not more than 28kmh. Duhhhh…..
PS : Don, next time, Pcc pre-requisite for newbies : attend 3x a week rpm for 3 months before taking the bike & headout to the open road !!
I sat up, felt difficulty in breathing. I guess it must be the impact from the handle bar or something. It took me a few rounds of deep breathing to ease the pressure. The newbie was on the road groaning, a little blood on her jersey. Everyone stopped, gathered around, trying to help. Annie helped me to the divider and check on me, Ivan & Claire help to fix my bike. I felt the hit on my left cheek bosne, my left elbow, my left pinky & right knee. Vong sprint off to get the car. I didn’t know where he sent her to, home / hospital. According to Don, she needs some cosmetic surgery stitches for the the open wound under her chin.
They went off, we picked up our bikes and rode back to Dataran. The ride was cut short. We probably did about 8km for the 8.30pm. Dayem ! At that point, I don’t know what to think, it was a blurr. I wasn’t really sure how badly I was I hurt. Don encouraged me to do xray. But I felt I was ok, apart from a little pain & soreness on the obvious places. Drove home, showered & changed. I had very minimal laceration. 98% bruises. Good, coz I thought it’s harder to heal open wound then bruises. But later I realised bruises are intenal injuries and started to be a little concern. Anyway, I was too tired to think straight, so, I went to sleep.
I woke up @ 3.30am feeling some pain on my left temple & some discomfort on the lower back of my head. Ice it with ice pack, trying to go back to sleep and only managed to dozz off around 5am. When I woke up at 8am, the ribs pain was more obvious especially when I lean back and when I breathe deep. I decide to go for a check up.
Spent 2.5 hours at Damansara Specialist Emergency dept, 6 slides of xrays, a tetanus jab, 3 days of anti-inflamatory particular to help heal the ribs faster, spare pain killer, RM273, I was cleared. Hooray !!! Thank God.
PS : Maybe I should claim this bill from her for causing the crash & unnecessary expenditure :p
Some of my trophies from the crash :
Bruised hip
Injured elbow / Swollen elbow
Bruised shoulder and my poor pinky, it took the whole load of impact on the way down. Now all swollen up. Left cheek bone took a hit too resulted in the bengkak face.
No Helmet no ride. Pcc rule of riding. I am sure thankful for the helmet to take the impact instead of my skull. Phew…
I wish I can ride on Sun. But everyone is advicing me against it.
1st dose of the anti-inflamatory has kicked in, ribs / breathing is so much better. Ride on Sun, can I ? Can I ? :p
