An eventful commute had my face landing inches from steel capped concrete stairs, I was intent on one dismount, one dismount to make me feel like my ride home tonight was a cross race, one dismount to practice. An underpass of suburban North Avenue, two 180 degree downhill corners and stairs leading up and out of the darkness. Stairs leading up and out, my right foot is unclipped, swinging around and through…..My bike is above me and all I see are the stairs growing larger as the bike falls down to meet me as I hit the pavement. Shoulder threatens to dislocate and stays put. The concrete this time was not as hard as usual. It took more than a few moments to dissect what went wrong. It seems that the front brake may have been grabbed at an inopportune moment, the only explanation I could give for the bike being above me. So that episode slowed me up enough, the stairs were much easier than they would have been. The rest of the ride home had me doing the odd search for wrong, is my shoulder gone, do my shifters work, are my wife’s wheels true…All answers seemed to be yes. Until a most heinous piece of pavement almost dealt me a deuce, and settled for a single flat. Slight three inch descent into a vertical rim wrecker that pinched the tire and made me curse a town whose roads seem to have it in for my tires on days when things are not all going my way.

So what, lift it up, and fix it…I can’t wait to ride back to work tomorrow.