Can you think of something more ridiculous than this? Imagine: a cyclist riding up to a traffic light, not getting out of his clipless pedals in time and falling over like a drunk chicken.

BTDT. Today wasn't precisely a good day for me cycling. First the weather was crap, showers every now and then, plus a lot of wind. Then I had the third damn flat in a week and a half (reminder to self: buy better tyres!) but I'm getting pretty quick at switching out tubes, almost as fast as I was (out of necessity!) with my old 700x23C road bike 15 years ago...

And then came the slapstick exercise mentioned above - extra embarrassing because my new clipless pedals are actually quite easy to get out, just not when you're already falling over. Cost me a skinned knee and I heard a number of laughs from the car drivers waiting at the intersection...

The only thing more hilarious that I can think of would be a motorbike rider doing the same thing. BTDT, too, with my GSXR 750 about 11 years ago: stopped at a traffic light and then for no good reason dropped her on the side, among lots of my friends who in turn almost fell off laughing.

So today I bought a pair of Continental City Contact tyres (in 26x1.75) which are supposed to be fairly well puncture-protected, quickly fitted them and then went for another windy and drizzly afternoon ride. And got a flat in the rear, after about 15km. FUUUUCK! A substantial glass sliver punctured the tyre just ouside the slick strip in the middle; I suppose the puncture protection strip on the contis isn't very wide or strong enough against long glass shards like this one. But a pattern is emerging: so far all my flats happened around this stretch of Markeri Street, which makes some sense - it's a busy street which apparently sees lots of accidents - certainly there's always some fresh glass lying around - and you basically have to ride in the gutter as there's no parking/bike lane in some areas. Looks like I need to find me a different route...annoying, as the bridges on Markeri St are so very convenient to get across the many canals in this area.