helen

Had a non serious off this morning on Victoria Embankment, at the hands of a very dopey red van driver.

Was sitting in traffic at a set of lights just before Hungerford Bridge when the red van just behind me edges forward, jamming right up against my exhaust pipe, and putting me at a bit of a lean.

I did my best sign language to tell him to reverse a bit to get off my bike, to which droopy drawers gives me a blank look, shrugs his shoulders, and drives forward instead, pushing me and my bike over in the process.

He then gets out the van and asks; ‘what’s the matter? What happened?’ Durr!

Anyway, he helped me with getting my bike back on its shoes, and it started ok, bless it. I loved the fact that people were beeping, even though they would have seen what happened.

Mr Dopey drove off, and then I realized my gear lever had snapped off. Oh well, rest of my journey to work in first gear! No other damage really.

After more than a year of on – off commuting into the smoke, it was bound to happen at some point. I’m just glad I fell into an empty bit of road!