Not a matter of if, but a matter of when..

As a cyclist, it's not a matter of if your going to crash, but when.

Yesterday my number came up on my commute home from work.  I was pushing through a construction zone where the road is necked down to one lane.  The traffic had opened up and I had a gap so I grabbed a couple of gears and hit the gas.

Unfortunately, my cleat decided since I had not been listening to the warning signs that they were getting more than a little worn, it would remind me a little more directly.  Full sprint, somewhere around 25 mph and on an upstroke my right cleat slipped out of the pedal.

I remember the feeling and the moment with rather perfect clarity.  The right leg was flying free, the bike became unbalanced and the fall was starting to my right.  I went over the bike and my hands came off the bars and came up.  A 25 mph impact with the pavement is not fun, the hands stayed up and out of the way, my bike and right elbow took the initial impact.  I managed to roll to my back as the slide continued where my Camelbak backpack died a glorious death and protected my back and most of my jersey. 

The worst was yet to come unfortunately.  As the slide was continuing, I ended up under my bike and the nice sharp pointy bits on my large chainring decided to take up residence in my right calf.

I did manage to get pictures post crash, I was hoping to get Instagram to post them up on Strava with my ride but something didn't translate.

What's left of my bar tape, shifter, and bar.

And the right calf/ankle shortly after the crash.  By the time I got to the "doc in the box" and the sock off it was rather soaked in blood.

Here's the elbow after cleaning, it was kind of hard to get a good picture of it while it was full of road bits, gravel, & debris, so I had to wait till my wife got the picture after hauling me to the local, "doc in a box".

And the leg all cleaned up.

Grand total for that bit of stupidity;

• New bar tape
• New saddle as my saddle actually broke
• New brifter hoods
• Minor tears to a favorite jersey
• Camelbak requiring repairs
• $42 and change to the doc in the box
• Scrips for 800 mg ibuprofen, antibiotic cream, and Amrix
• And a couple of days off the bike.