Crash!!!

Okay! Here is another episode that happened at the Itasca trip. We were re-collecting this in the afternoon today and were laughing our butts out.Apart from Kayaking we also went mountain biking. When you give a bunch of guys each a cycle and ask them to ride it in the woods,obviously the last thing that would happen is them to slowly ride it and enjoy the scenery and whistle about.That is what the girls do and that is what they did! Each of the guys took a good 10 mins to get their 'perfect' machine - shocks - front and back,front and rear gears,7 shift ups and shift downs,speedometers,they give pretty cool bikes for rent.And then it started,within 100 meters of starting the racing began,the girls were all forgotten-they didnt count,each guy had the other guy in his sights.

So,we are going up and down speeding all the way,overtaking and being overtaken,Bhargav and Asit are leading,I am third,Rajendra behind me and Saket behind rajendra. Bhargav,Asit and myself form the breakaway and the Teté de la course,Rajendra,Saket,mahesh form the peloton and the girls the laterne rouge.(cycling terminologies - avid tour de france fan). So we are winding our way up and down and we suddenly come across a long curving wooden bridge,since it had rained quite heavily couple of hours back,the wood is moist and slippery, Bhargav and Asit go on the bridge first,they are going quite fast and close to each other,then bam! Bhargav rear tyre loses traction and he skids and goes down,Sensing bhargav going down asit tries looking back and he also skids and goes down bam!(second casualty), I luckily apply brakes but dont skid,behind me rajendra suddenly comes over the blind turn and sees the muddle in front of him and he hits the brakes and he skids and he also goes down,crash!!(third casualty) Now behind rajendra ,Saket comes in and how can he miss the party?? i shout at Saket - 'Stop!! ',Saket also hits the brakes and he also goes down bam!!

So two cyclists ahead of me ,two cyclists behind me are down and I am the sole guy standing tall in the middle!!lol!!I feel like a all conquering hero in the middle of a battle field. People are still reeling from the effects! Then i utter the words 'are you all right' - to no one in particular.This triggers off for the next couple of minutes a series of 'i am all right' 'are you allright' 'yes, i am allright,are you' 'yes,iam ,what about you' ..i hope you get the idea ...being repeated multiple times to each other and to no one in particular.After everyone is suitably satisfied with the questions and answers and after making sure no bones are broken anywhere,the spirits rise up again and all get on their bikes.Experiences are supposed to make you wiser ,but in this case it was very short lived -the wisdom gained i mean! We all cross the bridge slowly,the minute we have crossed the bridge - all caution is thrown to the wind and life resumes in the fast lane!!

After cycling for several miles,we suddenly remember that we had something called 'girls' in our troupe.We again go through the series of questions 'did you see them' 'no,i didn't see them,did you see them?' 'No, I didn't,did you?' 'No , I didn't' ..i hope you get the idea.. .After several rounds of these questions we come to the conclusion that no one has seen them and they are probably somewhere behind.We decide to wait.After like eons or ages comes the fair sex rear brigade panting and wheezing -In between the panting and wheezing shilpa asks 'Can we go a bit slow -also its dangerous to drive fast?' - Slow?? Sheesh - girls!!!!

No one talks about the accident to them!(though we eventually tell them)

Okay..okay..we admit we are fool hardy and hard headed sometimes..Come on..give us a break..guys will be guys!! (wink)