Accidents Will Happen

This month, a decidedly unspectacular injury leaves Olly Mann frustrated at the distinct lack of a story to tell

- Olly Mann

I’VE HURT MY FOOT. I’m limping and using a crutch. If you met me, you’d probably express sympathy and fetch me a cold compress. But, if you then asked me how it happened, you’d find yourself wondering if I’d made the whole thing up, like those guys who fake an illness to claim insurance money and retire to Cuba.

Because the story behind the injury is underwhelming. Not just underwhelming: almost nonexistent. Blink and you’d miss it. I was there, and I did miss it.

It all started when I interviewed a biking journalist called Lois Pryce for my Radio 4 podcast, Four Thought. She was telling me how we Brits have a very peculiar relationship with cycling. In places like Holland and Germany, she said, it’s quite usual to get on a bike, wearing your normal day-to-day clothes, and efficiently transport yourself from A to B. You don’t need the luminescent trousers, or the streamlined sports helmet, or any of the specialist gear so beloved by the Middle-Aged Men in Lycra each Sunday afternoon. Just get on your bike, and give it a go!