Originally Posted by ahsposo

This.

I think I unclip as soon as the decision is made to stop. It's pretty unconscious. I also rode with toe clips for years so the transition wasn't a big deal as far as getting ready to stop.

I have done the tombay (will somebody explain the origin of that for me please) once that I remember. I was in a line of traffic leaving this big airfield at lunch time after a particularly intense work out in the Savannah, GA July steambath we call summer and I was cooked.
Traffic was moving slow and I am not the best trackstander. Sweat was pouring into my eyes, my head was about 3 sizes bigger than normal and my legs were like noodles. I was just that fraction of a second too slow uncleating as I lost balance and I did kind of a split as my cleat slid on the tarmac. Nothing graceful about it. Kind of ended up sitting on my toptube.

I have crashed more times than I would like and I got to say I always end up separated from the clipless pedals somehow. With tight strapped toeclips this wasn't always the case. Seems like being stuck in your pedals limits your ability to roll which, while it spreads the road damage around, limits the intensity in one place, usually a hip.