I had my first crash Monday morning on the way to work. Luckily I am generally OK, and hopefully will be riding again soon.

It was unexpectedly raining lightly (very rare in in July) and wasn't raining at my house so didn't realize it. I was on my road bike with 23mm tires, not my commuter with bigger tires and disc brakes (as I was mid way through some work on it from the weekend).

This combo made me ride extra cautious on a number of areas where I know it can be slick. All was good till less the 2 miles from work, where I had to do an awkward angle crossing of street car tracks. I do this all the time as its my normal route, typically starting slow from a red light and crossing carefully. This day it was green so I didn't come at it from a stop, I did slow down some, and try to take the best angle I could, but not enough I guess. The rain had almost stopped and I guess my mind felt I was past the danger. I was wrong.

Wend town hard. Got right back up, knowing I got a bit of road rash and hurt my elbow. Moved out of the road, checked the bike, it was fine except the left brifter bent in and scuffed a bit. Some tourist at the intersection saw I was bleeding and gave me some wet wipes. I figured I was OK, though shocked and scuffed up a bit. So after a couple minutes I started slowly riding to work again, with blood dripping down my arm from my elbow.

I got to work, showered and cleaned up, then learned we had woefully inadequate first aid at work, but did what i could to clean the gash in my elbow and put on some bandaids. Upon inspection I realized this was pretty deep and decided I should go to urgent care.

Turns out I needed three stitches and there was a small chip in the bone of my elbow (doc said nothing to worry about and it MAY have been pre-existing). Luckily the doctor was a cyclist, so we talked about riding, etc, and he understood bike accidents well. Other then that, some pretty minor road rash and some bruising and pain. Hopefully I will be OK to ride again soon.

What kills me is I know there were MANY ways I could have potentially avoided this fall. I could have been on my other bike, I could have taken this section of my commute more cautiously, or I could have taken and alternate route to avoid this awkward street car track crossings. I think I may start doing a different route to avoid this in the future.

Its certainly a reminder to me to be careful and safe the whole ride.