Well, I guess it was going to happen sooner or later. I trowled the Roubaix today. See the last 3 months I've hardly ridden since every spare moment was taken up making a blanket chest for the lady. Apart from a couple of mountain bikes rides with a mate I haven't been riding much lately. Anwyay had a bit of time for a ride today, so I threw Thylo's shirt on (I'd ridden with it on my mountain bike last weekend so it wasn't it's first go, pumped up the tires (a few PSI more than normal), then off I went. Had a good tail wind for a start, so sat on 40 which was good. Anyway, 15 minutes into the normal ride come to a roundabout that I've take probably 100 times on the bike. Still doing about 40 and I have to turn right. Look behind me and there's a car about to catch up to me with his left blinker on. Drivers here have a terrible habit of racing you to an intersection then turning left in front of you so you have to get hard on the brakes and almost get run over. That looked like it might happen here so I got out of the saddle and pounded into the roundabout (which is a pretty big one). Get on the brakes a bit, then try to be smooth through the corner, going no faster than I normally do. Guess it was a combination of maybe going slightly faster, the Pro Races on the bike maybe being a little harder from no use for a while, maybe having them pumped up more than normal, and probably colder road surface, but I lose the front at the apex and down I go. I've lost the front a gazillion times on motorbikes but not for a long time, so it was an interesting sensation doing it again. I slid along trying to keep the bike off the road as much as I could with my Pearl Izumi's taking most of the damage and thinking dang, these things are going to be tore up. Luckily the held up though and should still be right. So end result is bark off the right arm in two places, and a very bruised and gravel rashed right hip/thigh. More sadly, scratched up one Dura-Ace pedal a bit, and scratched the rear deralieur a bit. But luckily the frame didn't touch down and luckier still Thylo's shirt is still pristine.

So my beautiful Roubaix is a bit beaten up but we'll survive.

How long do you fellas leave off riding after having a little slide up the road. I really want to get out and do 70 km tomorrow, but I'm not sure if the body will be up to it. I guess we'll see.