Wear your helmet

In the scale of disasters that can befall an individual falling off your bike doesn’t rank high. It can be trivial and it can of course by fatal but generally speaking it’ll be low speed, a few grazes and just maybe a sprain, dislocation or other minor injury. It happens, you live with it and get over it. Time to move on. But it can give cause for reflection.

And so it was for me. I was riding with a faster group than usual and came of my bike. Nasty fall and whilst I’ve been feeling sorry for myself I reflected on similar incidents in my past. Not life threatening but they all (both of them that is) could have been nasty.

Back in the early 70s I was not a good swimmer but I tried hard and wanted to get better so I frequented the company pool (those were the days working at Shell Centre with an international length swimming pool in the basement). I went along one evening to join the swimming club and before the club started I had a go at a width under water. That’s not too difficult if you dive in and it had the advantage to me of not requiring me to synchronise my breathing with my swimming stroke. This time I didn’t complete the width. I don’t know what happened but I found myself gasping for air about two thirds of the way across. Slowly I stabilised and swam to the side. A swimming club member on duty said he was watching me and would have pulled me out if necessary but had I been in danger of drowning?

I didn’t bother with the swimming club after that but I have learnt to swim ‘properly’. A friend introduced me to swimming goggles which have made all the difference to my regular swimming but I don’t do any underwater widths any more.

Later in the 70s I turned out to play rugby for the first time in Hong Kong. My recollections are very vague but I do recall chasing a kick ahead and diving to touch down. Some time later on and at the end of the game I remember one of the opposition pointing me out to the captain of my team and saying that I seem to have have some sort of problem. I remember nothing else and certainly nothing of the game. Did I even score that try? Anyway I was taken to hospital where I spent a night under observation. I guess I’d had a concussion. Could it have been worse? Was it just good fortune that the lack of immediate medical attention didn’t result in something more serious?

This time however I did not change behaviour and I continued to play rugby until 1979 when I left Hong Kong. Ten years’ later I played twice in Switzerland but it was a different game. There was grass on the pitch, players were required to present current insurance documentation before each game and I was much, much slower. I didn’t/couldn’t chase any kicks ahead anymore.

That’s it until last week. We were in a peleton moving at 20mph plus and in tight formation. One minute I was fine, certainly the pace wasn’t bothering me and we were on the flat, next I must have touched the bike in front and my bike went all over the place. Fortunately those around me avoided me so I was the only casualty but it happened so quickly I can remember no details. I was slowly getting up by the time my fellow cyclists got back to me. Amazingly no bones dislocated or broken. Nasty ‘road rash’ on my right elbow and shoulder but because we were in cold weather gear and my shirt did not tear there was little risk of infection. Significantly though my helmet took quite a bang on then right side and lost a little structural integrity. My bike however was OK and I was able to cycle home at a more sedate pace escorted by two of my fellows.

You take these incidents more seriously as you get a little older, both deliberately and otherwise. I’ve reflected over the past week and I reckon I was fortunate. It could easily have been a lot nastier and my helmet certainly meant that I didn’t do damage to my head and what’s inside it.

During the week I have ached. It gets better, it gets worse. It moves around. I’ve had some dreadful nights’ sleep, or lack of it. But today I’m maybe 90%. I saw the club at the end of its ride this morning and was disappointed not to have been able to join them. I should be OK next Sunday.

My learning this time is not to ride so close to the bike in front. The bonus of a little more drag protection isn’t worth another fall. And I will continue to wear my helmet, I have a new yellow one, not just when I’m cycling with the club but also when I cycle into Cambridge. However I still draw the line at putting one on when I cycle into the village which I reckon is a journey with far less hazard. Am I right?