Thursday, May 6, 2010

"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." – Vince Lombardi

We started in Montbeliard this morning and cycled  along the beautiful Canal du Rhin to Mulhouse in Alsace near where France, Germany and Switzerland meet. It's a lovely town and the local newspaper sent a photographer, Catherine Kohler, to my hotel to take some photos for a story they are doing on our trip. Catherine asked if I could ride down the street in front of my hotel so she took take photos of me cruising along. It seemed best if I would ride down the center of the street, which was reserved for trams.

What I failed to consider however is that the tram track is recessed into the pavement, and that it is just wide enough for a bicycle tire to become stuck in it.

I'm sure you can imagine what came next.  I proudly started to pedal towards her, and as she was taking pictures with her (high speed camera), my rear tire rolled into the recessed tram track just as it curved, my bike suddenly stopped moving, and the laws of physics being what they are (Newton's First Law: an object in motion tends to stay in motion) I kept moving, off my bike, crashing to the pavement.




Which brings us to Vince Lombardi - I got off, admired my scraped knees, picked my bike up, climbed on, and allowed Catherine to finish her fine work:



Lets hope its the last photo that appears in the local paper.

Thanks to Catherine for allowing me to publish her photos on this blog, and providing me with an opportunity for humility.

1 comment:

  1. Oooh - bo bo knees!! Maybe a nice, dry Alsatian Reisling will help to soothe the pain....

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