Had a 2 hour delay getting out on this chilly and windy day, everything was going great! riding into the headwind was tough but made the ride interesting, as always the tailwind was a great pleasure... crosswind was a little scary at times especially with the big gust! All in all this was a fantastic ride until it wasn't. The last mile plus was into a headwind which was lucky for me. I was feeling good to be at the end of the ride then the unexpected happened with 50 meters before the turn into the final stretch to my house while on the shoulder fighting the headwinds, telephone wires were hanging off the side of the telephone pole. I did not see it until was too late, I was hoping that was short enough that
I would slide by. No luck, the end had something that wrapped around my handle bar and stopped me cold in the middle of the busily traffic road. I went down hard, landing face first onto my left side chest, shoulder, side of head and eventually back! The wind was knocked out of my and the severe pain I was almost unable to control myself. I did have luck on my side, because of the strong headwind i was going slower at about 15 mph and the most important traffic had just paused so there was a car ahead of me and nothing right behind me as his would have been tragic to me! When I hit the road, I thought I was still on the shoulder, I wasn't I was in the center of the lane. I immediately raised my right arm to inform the on coming traffic I was there on the road. I tried to do a super body check, raising my arm made the pain even worse so the arm came faster than i wanted. I saw the on coming car stop as did all the on coming traffic from the other lane. Several people asked I was OK or wanted to call an ambulance? I said, "I'm good" as I ever so slowly worked my way to the shoulder. It was appreciated that all those cars stopped made sure I was able to get to the road side. An off duty police officer happened to be there and paused traffic on both sides as he spoke to me wanting me have an ambulance come and get. I let him know lived at the end of the street and I would have my sister take me. He was very insistent saying he would wait for her to come. I told him I would be very happy if he could get some there to get the hanging wire remove or fixed so it wasn't hanging. He picked up all the wire that snapped off and was initially wrapped around me and my bike. While on the side of the road I did a quick assessment of my bike the chain was off, so I put it back on and another lucky thing the bike landed on the left side away from the Di2 derailleur! These derailleur break if you crash on them as one had done previously on my other road bike. Those of you that have Dura Ace Di2 electronic shifters know the cost... Limping home in pain, I was able to take everything of the bike and put it away. Get in the house, remove the long sleeve jersey and thin long sleeve base layer and heart rate sensor, I didn't want the emergency room to cut the off as they have done a few time before. I put on loose shirt and loose wide sleeve light weight jacket and changed shoes. All was good until I called my sister and she said, she was coming to get me. Then like a big ocean wave crashing down over rocks the pain hit me with a crushing blow, made the pain I felt at the crash scene feel like child's play! my biggest concern was my left collarbone that I have pins and plate from a previous accident. It was in severe pain. Xrays shows it is still intact, lucky I never had the pins and plate removed. Though CAT scans taken I had 2 fractured ribs which thought so. So they gave me a prescriptions for pain and see my Primary Care doctor that already need to see next month for other heath issues. So, I won't be able to ride for at least a few days! As much pain that I am in, I'm very lucky as it could have much worse... be safe out there and enjoy your ride!