I suppose to keep wearing my helmet.

To be honest, this was a toughie as far as lessons learned. It was 5:15 PM and twilight so visibility was not good. The muddy gravel hasn't been there the past 500 times I've ridden by that corner, it was just there this time because leaves had filled the drain. And finally the reason I was moving fast and really not seeing the mud was I was riding down a fairly busy street with traffic coming up behind me. I had sped up in fact to reach that corner before the traffic behind caught me.

Once I hit the mud....it was over so fast you would be surprised. If I had gone down on my right side in the initial slide I probably would have wound up more with road rash than the deep bruise I got. But in any case I instinctively fought the slide long enough to reach clear pavement again which simply made the high side inevitable. That was instinct.

I am glad I stayed tucked in all the way over. I can attest to the previous poster that sticking a hand out to save myself would have bought me a shattered wrist or forearm at the minimum. On the other hand, I think I kept my arms in mostly because I flipped so fast that I could not disengage from the death grip I had on the hoods from fighting the slide.

Both clips disengaged from the pedals at some point and one pannier took flight across the road too somehow but I have no idea when or how that happened. It's funny how you go pedal-turn-slide-flip-WHAM!.........and there you are lying on your back with your mangled glasses half off your face hoping nobody runs you over.