Gritty, grimacing, gunky photos

[ColinJ]

Okay, if it is unflattering photos of knackered cyclists you want (preferably overweight, overdressed and having just ridden up a sodding big hill, not the first one of the day), here are two of me that I have been keeping very secret (for obvious reasons!). Taken at the summit of Holme Moss on the Brian Robinson Challenge this year...

[PHOTOS PRESUMABLY REMOVED BY THE PEOPLE WHO TOOK THEM!]

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i like the holes in the tights look....the hill was so steep and so long even my tights were knackered...

 

[ColinJ]

i like the holes in the tights look....the hill was so steep and so long even my tights were knackered...

Ho ho! Actually, they are leg warmers. I got the hole when I fell off my MTB.

I was bombing down a bridleway which had a section of broken cobbles on it, with mud and wet mushy leaves at the side. I'd aimed at the leaves, thinking that I wouldn't get so battered, but then the bike started slithering about all over the place. Time kinda went into slow motion then...

I thought to myself that I'd be better off on the cobbles and my brain sent a message to my hands to start braking. Another thought popped into my mind while the message was making its way down my arm - "Don't brake on this stuff!" - but it was too late. I'd got the front brake on and immediately locked the wheel up and it slid out from underneath me. As I was being launched forward off the bike, the following thoughts went through my mind:

1. Great - I've got a cycling holiday booked for 2 weeks time and I'm about to break something!
2. I'm wearing a new jacket!
3. Please don't let my bike get damaged!
4. Those cobbles look hard!
5. This is going to hurt!
6. I want my mummy!

THUD!

I ripped my jacket, leg warmers and gloves. I took a chunk out of a knee, a shoulder and a hand, and had multiple cuts and bruises, but didn't break any bones. My bike escaped with superficial damage.

It could have been pretty nasty, but I was lucky. I won't make that mistake again!

 

[skmc1955]

he,s hurting!

!

 

[Geraldom]

Here's one of my mate dan (the specky one) and me after PfS 2007. now that was rain....

Note the optimist with shades on his head........

G

 

[Crackle]

Oh wow! Never has a picture conveyed rain so well and what rain.

C'mon, you could have managed a smile though

 

[ColinJ]

Interesting... I link to a couple of photographs of me taken on a UK sportive and the very next day they get removed from t'interweb! It seems that the company involved don't like people deep-linking to their work even when it has a big watermark across the middle publicising their company.

I didn't give permission for photographs to be taken of me on that event, and I didn't give permission for them to be posted on that website either. I think it is a bit rich for images of me to be on display only until I try to link to them!

 

[adscrim]

That it is
Here's me the year before it gives a bit better perspective of the hill

Me on Queens view at this years. For some reason looking pretty grumpy - even before the punctures. I try and remember to smile next year.

 

[montage]

he,s hurting!

!

this is an awesome photo, credit to the photographer!

 

[Scoosh]

Me at the top of Blakey Bank.

(and no, I didn't manage to cycle all the way up it, but someone had told me that the photographer was lurking at the top, where it levelled out a bit...)

Something I noticed on the 2 sportives that I have done recently, is that the photogaphers are now about 3/4 way up the hill, not at the top

First time, as I came round a corner, I see the photoman and think 'Great, that's the top' ...... only to see the road snaking away in a definite upward direction

Photographers are makng our rides more difficult

 

[skmc1955]

this is an awesome photo, credit to the photographer!

me!