Learning to ride with cleats

Extract from Stronger Every Mile

I did that 20 km bike ride again. I managed to stop safely at the junctions. All went well. I arrived at the turnaround point and stopped. I took my left foot out and placed it on the ground, but the ground was on an angle, so I lost my balance and fell off to the right.

Of course, there is something very scary about falling. You are so absolutely helpless because you are attached to the pedals, and it happens so quickly that one minute you are upright and the next minute you aren’t. All you can do is fall and hope for the best! I can’t say I ‘fell off’ the bike because I didn’t. This was a special case where I actually ‘fell with’ the bike.

I grazed my fingers and leg and felt a twinge in my ankle due to my right foot coming out at the last minute. So annoying. I didn’t realise it was possible to fall off when you weren’t actually moving!

I cycled through the village and I was already annoyed because a pretentious arse in his flashy car revved his engine and sped under the railway bridge, which frightened the living daylights out of me due to the loud echo it caused. He was too conceited to give me the right of way. It is pretty clear that the highway code goes straight out of the window when a car sees a bike.

I got to the roundabout, which was small but busy. I pulled up behind a car that I thought was about to move but didn’t, so I had to stop. I ended up falling off once again and lying on the ground, still attached to my bike, in the middle of the road, feeling like a complete idiot. How stupid! Within seconds, I had managed to unclip and was up, with no thought of anything other than to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Not the ‘walk of shame’ but the ‘ride of shame’. My hand was bleeding and my pride was damaged.

I can unashamedly say that I hated my new cycling shoes. That was it! I was going to get some wrist guards; then, at least, I would be safer if I fell. I never did, but it was tempting!