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Sweet summer shame

So there I am, most of the way through an early Sunday ride, feeling strong. It's a beautiful day: not a breath of wind, and the air is still cool. The sun is dancing off the waves, and just 2km away my favourite coffee shop is calling. Life cannot get better.

A traffic light comes up, and I clip my curbside shoe out of my pedal as I pull up to it. Chatting to my riding companion, I put my foot down.  But it's the wrong foot, the foot that's still clipped to the pedal.

And so, in slow motion, watched in disbelief by a dozen people, I fall over and lie on the tar, my bicycle on top of me. My fellow cyclists were very chivalrous, helping me up and assuring me that "everyone does it".

They resisted laughing like drains until they were heading off again (though not until they were out of earshot). But if "everyone does it", why have I never seen anyone else fall off a stationary bike? Tell me, have you done it, or seen it? C’mon… make me feel better.

The Health24 team in fact has decided to prepare for summer by looking at some of the extra hazards summer brings.

Sunburn, death-by-a-thousand-mozzie-bites and falling-off-stationary-bike hazards aside, have you got any stories to tell for the amusement, or to give advice to the rest of us?

Let us know. We'll report back in the week.

(Heather Parker, Health24)  

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