Annoyingly, I was hit by a car last night in the last kilometre of my commute home.  I was heading straight through a roundabout and when I was about half way through a car came flying through (from my left) and cleaned me up.  Despite some tenderness on almost the whole left hand side of my body, I survived unscathed, which is a miracle because in the slow-motion second or two before the impact, I just remember thinking “this is not going to end without broken bones”.  I managed to skid, swerve and avoid the car actually hitting me (from my left) and instead I more or less smashed into the driver’s door (what a sight that must have been!). I’d somehow managed to turn my bike side-on by skidding, so I hit with the whole of my left hand side.   My rear wheel ended up being run over and my seat pole is bent out of shape.  My bike’s being fixed and looked over now (hopefully there’s no frame cracks/bends) and I should have it back and ready to continue my commuting tomorrow.   

On the plus side, today’s a miserably windy day (50km/h gusts!) so I’m thankfully not missing out on riding in any nice conditions.

MORE on the plus side, I had actually contemplated riding the bike I’m riding through Africa with yesterday.  If that accident had have occurred on that bike, I would probably still be crying and drunk and angry and in jail for assault.

I’ve uploaded 3 new photos.  2 are from a ride Gavan and I did in April this year from Sale to Loch Sport to test ride out bikes.  The other photo is of the damage to my commuter’s wheel.

A couple of quotes from some cyclist friends:

* Don't worry if it takes a couple of minutes longer to get home. $200 panel damage for a car can be a fatality for a cyclist.
* You’re not a true cyclist until you’ve been hit by a car.  Welcome to the club.