It just got uglier...

Following my blog post from race day two days ago titled "The good, the bad and the ugly", I thought my cut and blistered feet were as ugly as it got. Until Tuesday, on Tuesday it got a whole lot uglier. I crashed on the A4 from Bath to Bristol, loosing grip of both handlebars after hitting something in the road, I flew straight over the handlebars landing on my head before my bike came over the top of me smashing down on the road.

Road rash down my entire left side. 

Members of the public stopped at helped, covered me in a blanket and calling an ambulance while I led where I had fallen on the road, unable to open my eyes from the searing pain that was rushing through my head. The paramedic arrived and after prodding my neck decided I needed a brace and board - so called an ambulance to take me to the BRI Hospital in Bristol (and police traffic control due to the traffic I was holding up from being selfishly sprawled across both lanes of traffic trying to get into Bristol). 

Mum and Dad arrived at the hospital soon after the ambulance brought me in and after checking on the bike (!) came to see me. After X-rays on my neck and pelvis (my hip was causing a lot of pain - later found it was raw and spread road rash) I was discharged from hospital and headed home with no more than a headache, bruising, cuts, torn clothes (warggh my Castelli! ) a sorry looking two week old bike and a destroyed helmet. 

The doctors couldn't believe I came off as lightly as I did from the fall. It seems my helmet took the full impact of my fall. It scares me to think the state I would be in right now if I had not been wearing one. I, as I know many others do, will frequently pop to the shop down the road, or pedal to a friends house with as little as a bobble hat on. Why do we make the effort to put a helmet on for long training rides or races and not these little commutes that in our minds seem insignificant?

Helmets may not be the outfit-topping accessory but it may well be the thing that saves your life.