First, let me set up the story for you. Iowa has two kinds of paved roads: blacktop and cement. (I know, nothing particularly surprising there.) The strange thing is that Iowa’s cement roads have a big crack down the center – I suppose it’s a necessary expansion crack. These cracks range from 1/4 inch wide to 2 inches or more. On a car, cracks are annoying. On a bike… well… I’ve seen a lot of ambulances this year.
I know about cracks. This is my third Ragbrai — I’ve gone over them hundres, perhaps thousands, of times over the past three years. Today one bit me.
Yea, I whiped out. Just a few miles east of Bethlehem (yea, seriously, Bethlehem, IA), I got caught in a crack and bit the dust. No, I’m not seriously hurt; actually, I’m barely hurt at all. No ambulance needed; my bike is pretty much ok (minus part of the handlebar getting grunged up a bit). The list of wounds could just have easily come from playing a game of volleyball:
That’s it. Didn’t scrape my helmet. Didn’t hit my head; didn’t break a wrist or a collar bone. Let me say this though… I crash with finesse! It takes incredible skill to crash on your right side and manage to scrape your left knee, wrist and chin… think about it….
Matt was right next to me. You’ll have to hit him up for a play-by-play on how it looked from the outiside.
In any case, the thunderstorm that went through at about 3:00 (am) was done by 5 so we have a sunny and hot day. Beautiful. My bag will be pretty wet when I pick it up (in a few hours), but everything is going well.
Grace and Peace,
`tim
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