Ride fixed gear bike on a rolling course. Ride mostly in heart rate 2-3 zones with some 4-5a on small uphills.
The wheelsucker thought this should be easy enough to do in the Philadelphia area, and he thought the standard Sunday ride 8:45AM starting at the dog statue would work well. Besides, Sunday was warmer and sunnier than Saturday, and the wintry mix forecast for Saturday had been mostly a no-show, and the roads appeared bare. However, when the wheelsucker rolled up to the little park with the dog statue, he was only the third rider there, one of the others being Super Brit1. After waiting a few minutes for other riders to turn up, the three decided to roll over to the Italian fountain behind the Art Museum to see if there was a ride starting there to hook up with.
On the way there, the third rider disappeared leaving Super Brit and the wheelsucker -- neither of whom knew any routes -- wondering what to do. Super Brit and the wheelsucker decided to see if they could remember the Vino Velo ride route, but problems started pulling out of the parking lot when they disagreed regarding whether the Vino Velo route went straight across Kelly Drive, or was a right turn onto Kelly Drive. While this particular issue was resolved in favor of going straight, it did not take long for Super Brit and the wheelsucker to find themselves beyond their known world, clearly off the normal Vino Velo route. But this was not too bad, as the day was nicer than Saturday, the road they were on did have a bicycle lane, and looking at the brightest area of the sky, they figured they were heading Northwest.
An hour into the ride things were looking good; Super Brit was looking for an easier ride, so the wheelsucker and his fixie were not pushing as hard to stay with him, but still the wheelsucker WAS following Super Brit down a hill when all of a sudden Super Brit went down, parting company with his bike and sliding down the shoulder on ice. The wheelsucker's first thought was to avoid hitting Super Brit, but this rapidly became moot as the wheelsucker went down two seconds later and slid with his fixie down the hill. When both riders finally came to a stop, they slowly picked themselves up, leaned against the guardrail and assessed the damage. Super Brit's folding bicycle was more than thirty feet back up the hill. Super Brit was sighing in pain. Both riders had fallen to the left, and the wheelsucker had hit his head (and helmet) on the ground and was shaken up. After some assessment it was determined that neither rider was hurt badly, but both were a little beat up. Jackets were scarred on the elbow and both riders were covered in salt stains on their left sides.
Continuing the ride out of town (where it seemed to be colder than in town) with the possibility of more ice seemed foolish, so the two turned around and carefully retraced their steps. But it was less than five minutes later than the wheelsucker found himself in the bike lane (which was generally less salted than the car lanes) avoiding car traffic, and suddenly on ice. The wheelsucker very carefully tried to ease the bike over to the left towards the traffic lane, but the bike lane was sloping right to left. This effort lasted a short while until the wheelsucker went down on his left side again, but not as hard as the first fall.
After picking himself up again the wheelsucker reverted to survival mode, riding easily in the traffic lane, trying to spot icy patches before he rode over them.
It did seem to be warming up slightly as they headed back towards Philadelphia, and eventually the two decided to head over to Manayunk either for some hills if they could find a dry patch, or for a coffee. Once in Manayunk the coffee won out and Super Brit and the wheelsucker holed up with large latte's (note to Lance and Kyle - these were skinny lattes) and an almond croissant.
After waiting what seemed like sufficient time for some more ice patches to melt, Super Brit and the wheelsucker carefully rode back to the Art Museum area, going easy on Super Brit's pulled groin muscle and their tender hips, knees and shoulders.
The ride back was uneventful, and after a nice hot shower at his girlfriend's home, the wheelsucker assessed the total damage as a headache, a slightly sprained neck, banged elbow, a bruised and sore hip and some mild road rash on his hip and knee. It could have been a lot worse.
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