Anyone who has ever participated in or watched a bike race like the Tour de France, Giro, or Tour of Flanders, will know this to be true: falling is part of bicycle racing.
Not that I pretend to be good enough to participate in the pro races, but with my nearly 50 years of age, I am still trying to do my best and participate in the 40+ age races. In these races, we go almost as fast as the Quicksteps of this world—although the distance may be closer to 70 km instead of 250 km. However, we still fall just as hard as the professionals.
Three weeks ago, it was my turn (after four years of luck) to hit the ground again. I came up with a broken clavicle, two broken ribs as well as some bruised ones, and a set of abrasions on the right side of my body. The recovery process is still ongoing, but I consider myself to be doing better than my bike, which also took a beating in the crash.
After two weeks of sleepless nights, I went to the local bike shop to see what could be saved of my carbon S-Works. The owner told me that they were doing extremely well in sales during these COVID days. It seemed that a lot of people had found their way back to the bike. Visitors filled the store looking for an escape or some good exercise. With the number of people in the shop going up and the same number of attendants in the store, visitors would often not be attended to and would leave the shop without the help they needed. Additionally, although sales were up, something else also went up: theft.
