bikes and things

On my ride home on Friday a woman stepped out in front of a bus and I ploughed straight into her. Fortunately I didn’t injure her at all. This was on a road which consisted of a bus lane and two lanes of traffic in Holborn. I’ve come so close to knocking pedestrians down through them just stepping out into the road a number of times – either not looking or being engrossed in their phones. I’ve always slowed down or managed to flick the bike to the side to escape damage to either of us previously.

Clearly it’s easy to do and pedestrians have right of way, but stepping out in front of the bus you have just got off and walking into a further two lanes of traffic is madness. Especially when there’s a signal controlled crossing a few metres away.

The woman was clearly shocked and started to have a go at me. The driver of the bus also had a pop and then the mini cav driver adjacent also put his bit in. I still believe it’s not my fault as you should look when stepping out. If it had been a motorbike or even car then things would have been a lot worse. She walked off and I went home after straightening my bars out.

I woke up yesterday with a bit of a stiff neck but didn’t think anything of it. By the end of the day I was in a considerable amount of pain and couldn’t turn my head or swallow properly. I woke up this morning with even worse symptoms which meant I couldn’t do the ride I had planned after a photo shoot. What’s worse is that I’ve seen so many other people out there riding their bikes, having fun. Roadies, families, couples and just people who’ve dusted their bikes off for the day. It makes me so angry to not be one of them enjoying the freedom of two wheels whilst also being in so much pain. Today feels like a completely wasted day. Just lying down and eating pain killers.

What’s further frustrated me is that my ‘stupid little cup’ target of 1250k this month on Strava is now probably completely out of the fucking window. I’ve done 1050k and short of a miracle tomorrow morning won’t be getting 200k done in the next 4 days.

More pain killers then.