Well make that two:

1. me
2. the bike

The curse of Barry Knows Best cast its shadow over me on Sunday, making me the latest Muddymoler to suffer.

I just can’t get enough of Holmbury and Pitch and have been exploring lots of late. In fact, I haven’t suffered the trip to the top of Ranmore for 5 weeks – it was boring me to tears.

Sunday morning saw me plan a BNM (Billy No Mates) ride – unable to fit in with the normal schedule, I headed out real early with my GPS to ‘discover’ some more of the fine trails on offer in the area.

There’s a risk to riding alone and oh so predictably, I lobbed it. It was one of those rides when really, I should have taken the hint, turned around and gone home after a very minor and unintentional trip into the bushes early on.

After that, I seemed to fall into the trap of looking at my front wheel – not the best thing when going down BKB. So I lost the front and went superman style towards a felled tree. My hands saved my face, but not my ribs, shoulder or shin.

Having dusted myself down and whinced (not minced – I have got rid of those gloves!) on my way, I found my left shifter bent beyond use.

Undeterred, I headed up onto Pitch and consoled myself by riding the T trails before heading back to Holmbury, blasting round Surfer Rosa, then down Telegraph Road back to the car.

Unlike Matt, I’ll spare you the images of the damage. In future, I’ll save the BNM trips to the more unchallenging stuff. I got away with it this time but it shows the value of some company should the worst happen.

Stay upright.

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