“Your life being saved by Bernard is exactly the sort of thing that makes life not worth living”

The Doc decides it's better to die than vindicate his friend

- 

I was out for a ride with my friend Bernard last week. We took a route that neither of us had taken for years, with rolling hills, a lot of very quiet lanes, high hedges and overhanging trees. It was the perfect terrain for making potholes. And the trees meant they were very hard to see. And the hills made sure that on a descent, you could build up enough speed to hit them really, really hard.

The one I hit nearly threw me off - I just about managed to catch myself, and then managed to stop safely with a front-wheel puncture. I stopped and fixed it, while Bernard ate a flapjack and deflected all attempts to start a conversation about how his new little electric pump worked and how much faster than a manual pump it might be.

When I was finished, he said, “Did you check the rim for cracks?”

“It’s fine,” I said.

“Well, that was quite a...”

“It’s fine.”

Of course, I didn’t check. And I didn’t check for the very simple reason that carbon rims are rather expensive to replace, and also because I needed something to ride home on. This is not what a rational, risk-management-aware rider would do, or even a rider with a source of free wheels and a readily available lift.