A good turnout for Saturday's training ride with perfect weather forecast for later but the roads were slippery early on; I hit an oily patch on the first corner, flew off and slid across the tarmac, with poor James following suit. Well, that's my three in a row and I was out of the Sunday Sportive...but then more bad luck on the Sunday: Brian Costello came a cropper and ended up with a broken collar bone and many bruises. He must have gone head first; he smashed his crash helmet, remembers nothing of the impact but later said 'the helmet probably saved my life'. It's odd that after thousands of miles, we have a succession of mishaps, which are generally very rare.
Rory, Maddy, Richard, Simon, Adam and Crystal finished the Sportive in good times; they said it was tougher than expected and the bright weather misled many into thinking the roads would be dry; in shaded, narrow lanes there were hazards. Some painful lessons for us all this weekend!
GET WELL SOON BRIAN, from all of your fans and friends!!
DAMP ROADS, DARK NIGHTS NOW! PLEASE TAKE EXTRA CARE! LIGHTS, HIGH VIZ, HELMETS and GLOVES STRONGLY ADVISED!