Black Ice

Not such a good day today. Yet again I had to fix a flat before I set off as my valve exploded when I was about to top up the pressure in my front tyre. So I contacted Peter to say I would meet the group at Clavering Lakes and he told me that answering his phone made him fall on the ice. Anyway I set off and it was a bit cold and icy, so I was being careful. With hindsight I should have stuck to main roads, but I got as far as Wareside turned left, and after another couple of hundred metres, hit black ice and went over - bike ending 10-15m in front of me, lying on the cold icy tarmac, hurting on my left side. I lay still for a half a minute, and then gingerly got up. Phoned home to ask for a lift back home. A few mins later I was feeling much better, and the bike was ok (handle bar a little knocked out of shape but ok) so I turned back for home and carefully set off. This time I hit more ice going back out of Wareside up the hill (that I had come down 10 mins earlier) and hit more ice going over on my right side. So after a short while on the ground, I walked to the top of the hill and waited a couple of mins for Montse and the girls to collect me. I got home, had a long shower and checked for more damage - just hurting hips/thighs and a grazed hand and knee so far and an ache all over for the rest of the day. Lesson - don't risk it when there is ice!