Commute, rain, crash, flat

I think the title of this post says is all.  Another day of bike commuting.  This afternoon, the rain started coming down, so I had a bit of a wet ride home.  My ride is mostly on a multi-use path rather than roads.  In a couple spots, there are a couple wood-plank bridges to cross, and one of those has a pretty sharp turn onto the bridge.  The bridge was wet, and when I made the turn at a pretty good speed, my bike completely slipped out from under me, sending me down pretty hard.

Other than a giant bruise on my ass, and a brake hood that was knocked out of place, everything is fine.  I made it all the way home without incident, but then ended up with a flat tire while riding down my street.  I patched it when I got home, and it was a weird one.  It was on a seam, but on the wheel-side of the tube, not the tire-side.  This has me a little worried that it could be a defect in the tube, and not any kind of puncture.  It's patched up good, so we'll see how it holds up.

On a brighter note, I received a photo today from the Best on Hess Time Trial.  They had hired a photographer to shoot the event, but when the date changed, it put this event up against the USA Pro Challenge, and the photographer was already scheduled to shoot that race instead.  So, one of the sponsor's employees was out there shooting instead.  Here is a shot of me at the starting ramp.

Best on Hess - ready to start my first race