It's not how fast you can go sonny, it's how long you can go fast.
Around corners and down hills Sandra rides terribly slowly. I usually tear past and mutter something about wasting the corner. Well yesterday she got to have the last laugh. There is a very long, steep decline as you leave Melk toward the east. As the path descends through the bush to the river bank below, there is a hairpin left hand bend.
All was going normally, I had passed Sandi, shifted my weight on the seat, and was leading with my shoulder as I looked through the bend ... When the front wheel starter to slide and bang! I was now descending the hill on my side and back as the bike slid off into the bush without me.
The pain from my shoulder was quite intense and so was the shame. After all the many thousands of km I have travelled around the world on motorcycles, I have my first injury-causing crash on a pushbike doing about ten miles an hour (at least I was in a race at the time, I was beating Sandi convincingly before the crash)!
After a few minutes to regain my composure I remounted the contraption and rode painfully to the next town.
We iced my shoulder for some relief and set off back into Melk by taxi to the hospital. The medical care here is first class and fast. I only waited about 15 minutes before a doctor saw me and went for two sets of X-rays immediately. They had fixed me up with drugs and this shoulder brace and sent me out to do it all again within about an hour.
The rest of the day we remained at the gasthoff here at Schonbuhel.
Last night I slept ok thanks to thepain killing injection and today we need to make some considerable distance toward Vienna.
Perhaps I'll let Sandi beat me through the corners today... Naaagh, I reckon I'll be right!
See you soon.