I'd already been out on my new bike, the carbon fibre job, which flies like a rocket when my legs have the energy to pedal fast enough. It had been spitting rain and I wondered if I was going to get caught in a deluge, like the one which prompted me to start writing 'Falling off a bike'. But the clouds passed over.

I mowed the grass in my back garden and still had some energy to spare so I thought I'd take Dolly out for a ride, this was the bike I was riding when I got soaked that day, which prompted... you get the message, I was also riding her at the Gabycon. I decided I'd do my short route, just over 7 miles.

About three miles out, the road was closed with police notices. It had been open earlier because I rode through there on Ruby (my new bike). To turn around would have been boring and besides bikes can squeeze through things that cars can't. About a mile later, I could see loads of police, fire tenders and ambulances - oops! Cycling up to the nearest field entrance, I lifted Dolly over and climbed the gate.

I had to walk about a mile across the fields to avoid the accident. Some smallish car had hit a tractor head on, both were burnt out and the way the police and firemen were poking around in the car, somebody was still in it. It left me feeling rather down. I ride that road several times a week in good weather, tractors are up and down it all the time. I had one overtake me earlier along the same stretch. Car drivers often speed along it, especially youngsters - more testosterone than brain cells. I guess the driver of the car didn't have that problem any more.

Angharad