Saturday morning: 50miles was the target for the day. As training for the Cairngorms 100 mile ride next week I was aiming to ride my local 25mile Harewood loop twice. Nursing a bit of a hangover the first lap was hard work, but as I started the second lap I felt very good and energy was seeping into my legs as the hangover was being pushed out of the top of my head. I felt good and the next 25miles was going to be easy. Like SSMM, the dampness of the morning was burning off in the warm sunshine and as the trail was drying out I was able to open up a bit more and rip it. Just after passing Emmerdale for the third time that day I dropped into the rocky gully, nailed the rocks well and let it rip, took the right hander, launching the bike off the sides of the gully and into the next left-hander and down into the rooty gully. Then things get a little vague…
I remember losing control of the bike; exactly how or why I aren’t sure as I have ridden that gully about a thousand times and know every root, rock and drop like the back of my hand, but something went wrong. I vaguely remember riding off the trail and into the trees. Then I remember seeing the bark of a tree very close up (about an inch from my face)...then...
...the next thing I remember is looking up and down the sandy, rooty
gully...and not recognising it at all. I knew I had been riding my bike and I knew that I had had a crash, but the normally familiar trail was unrecognisable to me in my concussed state. I couldn’t work out which way I had come or which way I was going. I knew that I was pretty ufcked up and needed to get to a road for someone to pick me up but I couldn’t work out which way I should go to get to a road quickest. Through the trees I saw a stone building and decided to head down to that. Whether I rode or walked I don’t know. Then I remember seeing that my handlebars were turned at 90deg to my front wheel. Whether I noticed this before I saw the house I don’t remember. I do remember taking my multi-tool out and straightening the bars and stem, then I rang Ellie (no answer) and sat by the trail, trying to remember wtf had just happened.
A man and woman (recreational cyclists) then pottered down the gully and said Hello to me. I replied, then got on my bike and followed them through the gate and freewheeled ahead of them down the slight hill knowing that I was now
heading towards Harewood house where I could be picked up. At the next gate I got back on my bike for the slight climb ahead then found that my derailleur hanger was broken. Although I was carrying a spare, changing it seemed like a Mensa test in my current state of befuddlement, so I pushed my bike up the hill and freewheeled down to the next gate in the Estate Yard, where I lent my bike
on a gatepost and sat on the ground and rang Ellie again (still no answer). The couple then caught me up and spotting the blood on my arm and my ashen face asked if I was OK. I said I didn’t think I was and that I thought I had crashed. They said they couldn’t leave me alone in my current state as my right ear was cut, swollen and bleeding and my chin was cut from tree impact and lots of arm blood. I then rang Ben, Nigel, Shack for medivac assistance but none were in Leeds or available. The couple took me to Harewood House itself
where there was a gig on and a nice woman (Dorothy Rigby: she had a name badge in and my ability to remember things was returning) patched me up, did the "How many fingers am I holding up?" thing and let the biking couple leave. I finally got hold of Ellie and she picked me up and I sheepishly got in the car, starting to feel a bit better.
When I got home the true extent of my injuries surprised me: the entire right side of my body (head, shoulder, arm, thigh) shows signs of impact with the tree (the scrub mark on my right shoulder has bark lines on it). Th left side of my body is also pretty battered too: this I think is from after I hit the tree, blacked out and was then bounced off the tree off my bike onto the floor. The mad thing is I don’t remember waking up: I don’t remember picking myself off the ground; I don’t remember waking up face down in the bushes or looking up at the sky: the first thing I remember after seeing the tree bark very close up is looking up and down the trail and not recognising it.
I have a nice dent in the right side of my helmet too, which is nice to know that it probably saved my life. My ear and chin seems to have taken some good impact, but I am sure my helmet took a lot of the blow.
Yesterday I rode Harewood again (determined to claim my 50 miles after all, even if it is over two days) and returned to the crash scene to try to work out what happened. It was like returning to a crime scene and Alex and I were like Scenes of Crimes Officers looking for clues: but we found very little. We narrowed the tree down to one of three possible, each of which had the rough type of bark I remember seeing close up. I was also able to recreate the view of the tail I had immediately when I woke up and also the view of the stone house through the trees, but no recollection of the seconds leading up to the crash returned to me. Feels very weird. There were no signs of the bushes being disturbed but we did find a tyre mark up against one of the suspect trees, so it seems that was the one I hit, but there was no sign of my helmet or bike impact.
Today I awoke to more aches and pains than I have felt for quite some time, both shoulders are very sore and make sleeping difficult, but I am on the mend. I am still amazed I stacked so big on my local trail: take care riders, a tree could step out in front of you at any time.
Don't wait for slower riders, leave them to die on the hills. Through the process of natural selection your team will become fitter and faster.