......actually. It didn’t really.
Of all the things to get me into hospital with a bicycle related injury for the first time in 33 years...it had to be a clipstack.
I was trying to turn around on a narrow local road after acting as sweep for the slower riders. I managed to avoid some fallen branch parts but in doing so rode off the tarmac and onto the unsealed verge. This turned out to be much softer than I expected and I came to an unexpected halt. I tried to twist out of the pedal but only succeeded to stick my knee out. I promptly drove said knee into the tarmac.
At the time, I was wearing leg warmers and I decided not to do an inspection. It felt a tad swollen but not especially painful so I didn’t worry too much about it. Especially since the fabric of the warmer was undamaged. So after a bit of a break to recover from the fright of it...we kept going.
We did the rest of our ride back to the coffee shop...another 12 kilometres or thereabouts.
Once back there I loaded the bike on the truck, ditched the helmet and shoes, put my work boots on...and looked at my now obviously blood soaked leg warmer. The size of the patch surprised me. When I unpeeled the leg warmer...the size of the wound did more than that.
Took myself up to the local hospital and, an hour and a half later, came back out with a sealed up knee, about 30 stitches, a leg splint, a prescription for some quality antibiotics and some positive comments about the visible qualities of my patella tendon from the doctor.
Two weeks of healing is now forthcoming...