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Veritas

Sunday, October 22, 2006


Today we took the train down to Huddinge and biked the 6 or 7 kilometers to Flottsbro.

There, there is a relatively tall hill with a T-bar ski lift. We rode up the hill on our bikes by placing the T-bar under the saddle, behind the seat post.

There's quite a nice view from the top of the hill.

We met Patric there. Åsa is in Rome for education this week so Patric was riding her Kona Howler bike — a great bike for the sort of downhill trails at Flottsbro. As you can see, Patric also had the necessary protective gear.

After a quick dash down the hill, Matt and I met up with Lisa at the bottom and rode the cross-country trail marked with blue signs. The trail basically went right back up the trail that Matt and I had just come down. It was a hard climb, so we stopped halfway up to take some photos. The bridge across the water in the distance is a subway bridge, but to where, I'm not quite sure. Somewhere way to the Southwest of the city.

Moments after taking that last photo, the sun came out so I had to snap another one!

Patric didn't join us on the cross-country trail. Instead, he kept riding the lift up so that he could practice his downhill technique. We met him coming down as we were slogging it up the hill.

At the top again, this time under my own power — much more satisfying, but also more exhausting!

Hi Mom!

After the climb up the hill, the cross-country trail branches off to the right and into the woods. The terrain is quick rocky, but it was much drier than the woods in Ursvik yesterday. Still, some steep bits over mud-covered rock were a bit treacherous and I had to walk at in one place. At the end of the run, the trail empties back onto the ski slope. Matt blazed down the hill in his usual happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care way. But unfortunately for him, his luck ran out this time. He hit a bump at the bottom of the hil a bit too hard and crashed rather spectacularly. Both of his weels broke, and in one place spokes were broken and yanked clean out of the rim. Two of his three chainrings were broken. I was 50 meters behind him when he wiped out, and I saw the whole thing. It happened so quickly that I coudln't tell exactly what caused the wreck, but I think I have a good idea. I think the front wheel failed on impact with the log, and that the rear end of the bike swung around sideways, slamming into the ground from the side and causing the rear wheel and two chainrings to break too. Matt came off the bike and rolled twice before sliding to a stop in the gravel at the bottom of the hill. Incredibly, he wasn't badly hurt and got right back up to survey the damage to his bike. Suffice it to say it was an expensive crash!

Here are some shots of the damage caused by Matt's crash.





Ouch!

1 comment:

Remi said...

Great report on Matt's crash but one small correction is needed:

"Incredibly, he wasn't badly hurt and got right back up to survey the damage to his bike"

should read:

As usual, he wasn't badly hurt and got right back up to survey the damage to his bike in his usual happy go lucky, devil may care kinda way !