It Was Such a Lovely Ride 0r Pride Comes Before A Fall

Yesterday was  a beautiful day with a bright cool morning and a bright sunny day forecast.  I decided to have ride to Eumundi for coffee.  This is a hilly 17Km ride and I did it in a leisurely hour.  Coffee and a cream bun were at the Eumundi bakery where there was a group of touring cyclists just moving off.  They were on a charity ride and carrying all their camping gear.  They waved as I cycled up but didn't stop to talk.

After a half an hour break I decided to return via Cooroy and stretch the ride out to 40Km.  The map an elevation profile shows a steep climb between 18 and 19Km and I had to stop for some road works.  It was easier to walk through them than try and remount my bike on the steepest grade.  At the top I sat at the lookout for a while and was joined by another cyclist.  He had a road bike and looked very fit.  We talked for a while and found out that we were both 75 years old.  After about half an hour we went on our separate ways.

I had an enjoyable ride to Cooroy but just before I turned off for Tewantin I had a puncture in my front tyre.  This was my first puncture in over 10 years and I set up in the shade near the Cooroy Station's bus shelter to fix it.  The cause of the puncture looked obvious with a metal  staple sticking in the tyre's tread.  It took sometime to remove the staple as it broke off leaving a bit sticking through the casing on the inside.  After a while I flicked it out using a key and replaced the inner tube with my spare and pumped up the tyre and replaced the wheel.

I was soon pedalling up the hill from Cooroy but just before the drop down into Tewantin I noticed that my tyre was flat again.  In my pride at finding the staple I had overlooked the first rule of fixing flats. "Even if the cause looks obvious check the tyre for other possible problems."

I pumped up the tyre and decided to take the longer twisty route down the escarpment rather than the swift swoop down the main road.

At the bottom the tyre felt soft but I only had a bit over one kilometre to get home.  As I turned left to cross the road from the bike path the soft front tyre allowed the rim to dig in a flip me over the handle bars and and on my back next to the bike.  I sat up and apart from twisting my handlebars the bike was OK.  I had a graze on my leg but my main problem was a very sore back.

I walked the short distance home and had a shower.  My back was not bruised but was very tender as if I had been kicked in the ribs.  I could breath OK and I didn't think that I had cracked a rib.

I was able to walk Louis in the evening and my friend, Betty,  had me lift up my shirt in the park to see if she could see any problems but it looked OK.

I was able to sleep OK but woke up very stiff and sore this morning.  After taking some Paracetamol I was able to fix the two flat tubes and discovered a piece of glass through the tread which caused the only puncture.  The staple had not pierced the tube.

The misquotation in the post's title seems appropriate.  The full biblical quotation is:

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."