Out at 6 this morning to meet El Prez, he on his new electrick flivver and me with my almost-healed right leg. First time I've ridden alongside an eBike, and I was expecting to be left in the dust, but it turns out that cruising at 22.5 kph is optimal for battery life, so on the flat he stuck at that speed while I went at my usual 24-26 kph with halts for him to catch up. Then we hit a hill and the bugger went up it at 25 kph. Hmmm...
Anyway, the romp came to a sudden end at an intersection in a town with the outlandish name of Pfaffenhoffen*, when a dozy woman in a Seat rear-ended him at the halt line. She didn't so much hit him as come into gentle contact and just keep pushing, as he went over sideways with the bike on top. Fortunately she stopped before he had the car on top too, but not before she had destroyed his back wheel. I took pics while driver & El P filled in insurance forms, then called Mrs T who came to pick him up, Mrs. El Prez being a loppy stocking who wouldn't dare drive that far but takes her duty of wifely panic very seriously.
So El Prez is yet again limited by his arrhythmic heart and doomed to waiting for the insurance folk to come back from holiday in September, his hols in the Alps kiboshed.
Apart from that I had quite a good ride - 70 km @ 23 kph ave and an excellent croissant in a nice air-conditioned patisserie. Leg behaved itself, too.
* twinned with Gilligilliausenpfeffercatsanella-Bogen-by-the-Sea. Not.