At speed, it's not the gravel rash, but the thing a rider hits. Just over two months ago, a local rider -- a racer -- died when, on a long and fast downhill with a dampish surface at dusk, he lost control of the bike and hit a control box for a "slow moving vehicle" sign above. We don't quite know what happened -- grabbed too much brake for the upcoming sweeping corner, blow-out, or a very brief lapse in attention... the coroner undoubtedly will work it out.

Until the middle of last September, all my injuries had been at relatively low speeds -- under say 12km/h. A damaged left shoulder from doing tight zig-zags on a hybrid (two years to get full mobility back); various abrasions and kneecap "holes" from toppling over trying to get out of clips or clipless pedals; a bent middle chainring and leg bruising when I fell going *backwards* to close a gate; broken left hand when crossing wet railway lines in the closing stages of a long ride.

My worst was a dislocated right shoulder and vertical break in the ball of the humerus. I went down between 25 and 30km/h on a sweeping downhill curve with a slick (rain and bus diesel) coarse chipseal surface. I landed directly on the shoulder. A tiny abrasion on my right hip I only discovered two days later. No shredded clothing. I rode three kilometres to a doctor's surgery, they called an ambulance, and in hospital casualty, they gave me a knock-out sedative to put the shoulder back in. I avoided surgery. I was lucky I didn't break my collarbone -- 10 days later I rode a 300km randonnee, then in the following month a 400, a 200 and a 1200. I had to "creep" my right hand from the stem and across the bars to the hoods to get riding, but strangely it wasn't that painful once I got going.