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Blog Archive - Thu 5th May 2016 - (Un)luckiest Day... - Heason Events

(Un)luckiest Day...

5th May 2016

Last Saturday I had the privilege to ride my bike with some of my best mates in an amazing place. It didn't all go smoothly however. The place was Mallorca, the route was the 312 Sportive. 312km up, down and around one of the prettiest places on the planet. We'd signed up early, drawn in by the idea of circumnavigating the island, riding on smooth tarmac in lovely weather. Two weeks before the event the organisers declared a major change of route, worried that 5,000 people riding through Palma was unsafe. The day dawned wet and cold and stayed that way for much of the ride. We arrived at the start lane late as we were a group of 8 so we started 20 minutes after the first riders. That meant we arrived at the feed stations late to find slim pickings. About 170km into the day a tired marshal obscured a direction arrow and our chain gang slowed up. My tired brain saw it too late and I swerved to avoid a collision. Unsuccessfully. Miles was fine, but I cut a groove in the tarmac as I bounced, rolled, and then slid to a stop from 35kmh. Adrenaline is an amazing drug. I poked a few bits of my body, flexed my left wrist that had taken the brunt of the impact, and jumped back on the bike. As the hours wore on my now tired brain didn't put my shock-proof camera back in my bar bag properly and it took flight too, sadly proving that it wasn't actually shock proof. My wrist began to tighten and changing gear took some effort. We were swept up by the sweeper peloton and hung on for dear life, pushing 50kmh along the flat at times. Neil, Miles and I limped into the finish with them to tick the mid-length 232km route, forced down some more food and drink and headed out for another 3.5 hours and 80km for the full monty. We were sung into the last feed station by a crowd of drunken residents, we chased down a superhuman rider on a fat bike, and raised our game for the final hour to cross the line 15 minutes inside the 14 hour cut off, and ranked 1081 of 1131 finishers. Back at the ranch (a villa large enough for all of our 8 families too!) Jamie waited on us hand and foot despite the fact he had already ridden 232km himself. We sat a little stupefied and ate paella delivered from the amazing Alfresco Deli. Uploading the route to Strava from my phone, for some well earned Kudos, I dropped the thing onto the tile floor and smashed the screen, but I didn't care. I was the luckiest man on the planet last Saturday night. 4 very large whiskeys later I rolled into bed, crashed out, and was rudely awakened at 3am when one of the legs (at the head end of course) of my bed fell off!

I did go to hospital the following day (thanks for the rides Ed and had the wrist x-rayed. It's not broken, but it's pretty stiff and will be for some time. I still can't quite get my head around how one can fall off a bike at that speed and get away so lightly. I should also point out that the photo in this post is not one of mine. Sadly my camera, for some reason I can't explain, took all my holiday pics on low resolution...

I'll be writing up a full article on the ride for Totally Active Magazine in June. An epic day crammed to bursting with Type Two Fun. 

https://www.facebook.com/Mallorca312/