By rights it should have been me and Gar up first, but Phil and Andy were ready to go so we took our place in the van. We'd not long overtaken the two cyclists when sat at some traffic lights, Porth knocked the window to tell us that Phil had phoned to say Andy had come off the bike.
The car turned back and we waited for news for what seemed like an eternity. We had it confirmed that he was dazed and being taken to hospital to be checked out and so drove back to the spot.
As we pulled up behind the ambulance there was a railway track going diagonally across the road and Andy's bike had gone from under him as he went across. I almost slipped over just walking on the rail so it's not hard to see how this happened.
Thankfully Andy is alright, no bones broken but certainly sore and if ever you needed an argument for the use of helmets when riding a bike today is a great example. A good chunk of the polystyrene has snapped off and without it things would have been far more serious. As they also would had Phil not quickly jumped off his bike and run back to stop the traffic while Andy was in the road.
As we sat in the hospital while Andy underwent tests the initial fear and anxiety as to his condition subsided to be replaced by guilt. It should have been me on the road, and also for all the people for this to happen to Andy is the least deserving (although he'd be too modest to say so).
Without him the trip simply would not have happened. He booked the flights, accommodation, vehicles, planned the route etc not to mention the enormous effort he made in organising events, gigs, sponsors and the like to finance the whole thing.
He has been and is the driving force behind team C2C and I hope he is able to play some part tomorrow. I know it's easy to say but I'd swap places tomorrow in an instant (I'd rather not have the pain to go with it though).
Andy - the whole team is very proud of you and thankful for what you've done to make this happen.
Immediately after the accident the rain got worse and was a full blooded thunderstorm by the time we got to the hospital. We sat in the waiting area watching the weather channel which showed a line of thunderstorms sweeping across the pan handle of Florida. The TV advised people not to drive and warned of flash floods and potential tornadoes, so further cycling once Andy was discharged seemed unlikely.
So we drove towards our destination for the evening; Live Oak. Conditions did improve though and around 25 miles from Live Oak we decided to give it a go.
Phil, Gar, Ian and I set off together. Within a few miles Phil had punctured and got in the van. Then while I was in the front I saw a large dog run out of a house towards us. Although there was a fence it looked like there was a large gap. In fact there was a recessed gate and so it couldn't get to us, but I had already instinctively applied the brakes. Ian didn't, at least not as quickly as me and he clipped my back wheel. I stayed upright, but Ian fell. He only had a bit of road rash on his hip and a cut to his knee and was quickly laughing about it.
His brand new bike though sustained a bit of damage to the brake levers. So now I was left feeling even more guilty as if I hadn't been such a wimp this wouldn't have happened, especially as the dog turned out to be lovely.
By then we decided that the cycling gods were well and truly against us so called it a day. As we did the heavy rains returned with a vengeance so in all probability we wouldn't have got much more in anyhow.
The weather forecast is brighter tomorrow, let's hope the cycling is too.
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