My quest to discover why will be the subject of future posts but what happened is fairly simple.

Sam kindly gave his phone number to one of my club and he told me what he saw a few days later.  He saw me drop back from a group of 4 and slow down, so he was catching me up.  About a quarter of a lap later he saw me seemingly start to turn, possibly to avoid a parked car, then I just fell to the ground to my left.  I must have passed out.

I remember meeting Steffan, Terry and Vic at 6am at the zoo and starting with an easy lap.  We then speeded up, each doing a minute or so the front before rotating round to the back of the line and I think our last lap was around 22 mph.  My Garmin was reading just under 20mph (new bike, not properly set up yet) which probably contributed to me pushing it harder than usual.  I realised my heart rate had been around 160bpm for a while and I was struggling to hold Vic’s wheel.  I pulled alongside him and said I would carry on at my own pace so I dropped back from the group.

I remember carrying on, up the East side of Regents Park, wondering if it was worth doing a few more laps at a reduced pace or if I should call it a day. I saw my HR drop back from 160bpm to about 150bpm so I reducing my effort was working. The last thing I remember is having gone round the NE corner, approaching the zoo and catching sight of a group of 3 as the road straightened out and wondering if it was my group.

The next I remember is the American drunk guy yelling and being stretchered into the ambulance.  There was some dispute about how best to stop my neck being broken.   I think I must have come fully round in the ambulance as I remember that conversation pretty clearly. The paramedic said someone said I was having seizure but he said it was probably the effects of the adrenaline from the shock.