@DiggyGun
Sorry to hear about your fall. If it's any condolence, I've just joined your ranks the other day. Not a lot of damage - just a scraped elbow and a sore arm bone.
How it happened: friend called and wanted to ride. I was way too busy but thought I'd steal an hour since the temps were actually bearable (we had been in the relentless clutches of 90+°F heat for weeks). I said a short ride only, she agreed. We had just started out and were about half a mile from her place. I was leading. At a crossroad I stuck out my right arm to signal a turn right, and called over my shoulder we were turning right.
As I started to turn right my friend, without warning, suddenly shot past me on the right and turned left, directly in front of me. I grabbed both brakes to do a panic stop and barely missed crashing into her bike as she flew past the front of my bike. Had I not braked so quickly, she would have been T-boned as she cut me off, and both of us would have ended up on the ground.
Because my front wheel was turned right, my stopped bike went into a slow motion free fall to the pavement. I tried to get my right leg under me for support, but it didn't happen fast enough. Both my Gazelle and I were unceremoniously laid out on the pavement, my right elbow bearing the brunt of the fall.
I haven't taken a fall since I was a kid, and that pavement was pretty unforgiving. Friend stopped when she saw me on the ground, and stood looking confused until I told her what had happened, at which point she was mortified. Thankfully no damage to the bike because it was a fall from a halt and it has a carbon belt drive, no derailleur. Minimal damage to me. Although my arm stung the rest of the ride, we still had a nice time. The day was too perfect not to return the smiles. Once back home a smear of Destin on the scrape made for a quick heal, and an Advil each day for the next two days helped me ignore the bruised elbow bone and stiff neck, both of which are fine by now.
A quiet solo ride today for a lovely 27 miles in almost chilly weather put me back in a happy mood. Our county, as well as the surrounding counties here in northern Virginia , are in a declared drought. Everything is bone dry, the ground like concrete, and lots of vegetation - grasses, crops, trees - is either severely stressed from lack of water, or dying. So the landscape is brown, and sad. Not picture worthy. I stopped enroute to talk to one of the riders attending the first foxhunt of the season at an estate along my route. She said everyone kept their horses at a walk because of the rock hard ground. No jumping, all used the field gates to go from field to field. but all had fun. At least the hounds got to run about.
A bit further down the road a polo match was in progress. I stopped to watch a bit of play and give a friendly doggie a happy scratch around the ears. There were no spectators today. I'm guessing the wretched days of restless heat and humidity had cowed even the most ardent polo supporters into staying home . So the players played to no one other than themselves, happily chasing and whacking the small white ball up and down the field of dead brown grass.
I also saw my neighbor out riding her horse with her daughter on a young Thoroughbred, both walking alongside the road just as I had set out. Two years ago my neighbor had fallen off another horse while out on a trail ride and suffered a TBI. She was medivacced by helicopter to a hospital and put into an induced coma for several days to allow her brain to heal (yes, she was wearing a helmet at the time), had an operation for her broken bones, and was told not to set foot in a stirrup again. Ever. She spent the past two years recovering and I guess the doctors relented on allowing her to ride again. We stopped to chat for a bit before we both moved on - she and her daughter together at a slow gentle walk, and me on a far faster clip down the road.
It was nice to get out today since the heat ramps back up tomorrow all the way through to next week with temps forecast to almost 100°F for several consecutive days with no rain in sight.
I have a 50 mile charity ride coming up Saturday. At this point I've barely been riding at all in August due to the heat, so I'll wait to see what the temps will be next weekend before I make any "go/no go" decisions.
At least by then my elbow will be back to being as good as new. I hope.
Wednesday we pick up my new Rivian electric truck - a whole other exciting adventure I'll write about later since I plan to use the truck to carry my Rivian Blue Gazelle to the bike ride on Saturday. If I go. Weather will tell..
