Day 3 H2H 2016 - Leaving Cam Thuy

This morning the H2H team went over emergency procedures.

Biking does not come without risk. I've been regularly commuting by bike since 2009, splitting most of my time between Santa Cruz and Berkeley, but I've also biked my fair share around San Francisco and Los Angeles, not to mention that in 2013 I toured Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama on a touring bike covering 1500km over 2 months. It's amazing to me that over this time and distance I haven't had more accidents.

This morning I crashed while biking out of Cam Thuy. The best way to describe this accident is imagining that while biking you run into one of your cycling team members who is stopped on the road, dead on at full speed. It sounds odd, because most people who are biking have enough time to see obstacles ahead of them and avoid them, but that is exactly what happened.

Once I realized that I had crashed and was on the pavement I began to feel an odd sensation in my right knee. I checked it out and saw to my surprise that I had a fairly large sprocket-sized gash to the left of my right kneecap. Amazingly, that was the only injury I sustained, but I needed stitches.

As I crashed only a few kilometers outside of Cam Thuy, I was taken back to the clinic in town where I was cleaned up and stitched up. If you're curious about what ER fees are like in rural Vietnam right now, I paid for the entire visit in cash totaling approximately $10.

Although not more extreme that any of my previous accidents, this crash is a healthy reminder that biking carries real physical risk. May the rest of this ride be injury-free!

Justin
PS I am ok and in good health!