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Well... it was bound to happen.
After thirty years.. THIRTY YEARS... of puncture-free cycling, it has happened. I dragged myself out of bed this morning, stuck my head outside and saw a glorious day for cycling. YES! I showered, ate, fed the dog, geared up, said goodbye to MaxBabe and headed downstairs to grab my bike. As I rolled it, I noticed a strange squishy sound. I looked down to find the rear tyre totally deflated.
Hmmm, thinks I. Perhaps it's just a random deflation. It's funny how the mind refuses to accept bad news, isn't it? It must be anything but an actual puncture, surely. I have a record to maintain, after all! After a few moments, my mind finally accepted the awful truth. It was a flat caused by a puncture. But how could that be? I'd not long ago purchased Continental Gatorskins, puncture-resistant tyres! I found myself cursing the fact that I'd taunted the puncture gods by purchasing puncture-resistant tyres in the first place.
I inspected the tyre. I found not one, not two, but three holes in the tyre. I removed the wheel, tyre, and tube. I inflated the tube to find the site of the puncture, and green goo came oozing out of the place where the worst tyre damage had been. Curious to see how well the green goo would seal the hole, I put my finger over it and further inflated the tyre. After about thirty seconds, I removed my finger from the hole to find a seal of green goo. The tube is still inflated. It will be useful as a fallback tube.
Anyway.. I decided to find out what had caused these three holes. One was a tiny sliver of glass which immediately fell onto the ground, never to be seen again until I step on it in the middle of the night. Another was a larger piece of glass. Neither of these pieces of glass actually punctured the tube. +1 to the Contis. But the third object was not a piece of glass. It was a very sharp piece of stone! It took all my strength to prise it from the rubber of the tyre. Here it is, along with the larger piece of glass.
I was not at all surprised that it had managed to make it past the Conti's defences. It was very sharp, and very large.
Anyway.. after all the effort of removing the wheel, tyre and tube, then replacing the tube and reinstalling it and the tyre and wheel, time had passed and, with it, my motivation to go for a ride. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm still not happy with the length of time it took to replace the tube. I'm just grateful I didn't have to do it on the side of the road! And now, of course, years of gloating at BestMate about how I've never had a puncture will come back to bite me. Revenge is best served cold. I just hope he's not too harsh on me!!!!!