During my first few months on the road, I’ve made lots of minor rookie mistakes. Have a few laughs on me with some pretty epic fails…….
My first few times with cycling shoes and pedals went fairly well. The thing that I had the most trouble with was my saddle height. I used to stop while still in the saddle rather than getting out of the saddle to stop. One day, while riding in Queens I stopped at a light. I wound up tipping over and falling under my bike. My cleat got stuck in a spoke and I couldn’t get it out. A really nice older guy came to my rescue. I thanked him and pedaled away quickly, clearly ashamed.
I didn’t know that sand was a road cyclist’s kryptonite. I was on a group ride and we were leaving a park at a stop. There was sand at a turn and I wiped out. I went down slowly, dying of laughter. I tried holding onto a fence. I wound up on my side in the sand. I eventually got up after we all had our laugh. There would be more laughs when I explained to the shop how sand got all over the chain they had to clean out.
Another sandy moment was when I was pedaling along a greenway in Brooklyn. I was about to pass a sandy mound when, at the last moment, someone passed in front of me and I had no choice but to bike through it. As I was going down I reached out for the old man that was walking next to me with his wife. I grabbed onto him and broke my fall. I was very embarrassed. He was very sweet about it saying he’s always there to help a lady in need.
On the group ride in Greenwich, CT we stopped at a light. I was leaning to the left to stop but I tipped to the right instead. The guy next to me moved out of the way instead of reaching a hand out to steady me. At the last moment I unclipped my right foot and stayed upright. I yelled at him saying he’s a bastard because his first instinct was to get out of the way rather than help (he’s actually one of the nicest guys you could know).
Its not cycling related but I was on the treadmill at the gym on a rainy day. I stopped and saved my run on my watch. I completely forgot I didn’t stop the treadmill. As I stepped back on sideways to get off I started to go down but, after a few slick moves, I caught myself from falling. There were people behind me on other equipment that saw the whole thing.
I probably could name a few more incidents but I’m not gonna share every embarrassing moment!
