Accident injuries a near miss for the bald dandy

It is often when we are at our most confident that we are most vulnerable to suffering accident injuries. This truth was underlined to me the other day when, imagining myself a kind of urban Lance Armstrong, the sole of my unsuitable shoe slipped on the wet peddle of my classic Raleigh bicycle, very nearly causing me to lose complete control.

The situation left me with a distinct and uncomfortable sensation of both my foolhardiness and my own tenuous mortality. I felt ashamed and reckless; a sensation that was direly compounded by the knowledge that only a few looming feet behind me had been a full two tonnes or more of potentially bone-shattering, blood-sluicing transit van.

Although I suffered no accident injuries, aside perhaps from a kind of wounded pride, I was aware of how infinitesimally poised were the series of small statistical fortuities that had, in the end, allowed me to regain control.

I also knew I should have known better. My wife had questioned the wisdom of cycling to lunch on "dangerously slippery roads". I had told her I'd be fine. I'm a man of action and do after all look very like Bruce Willis, at least from the eyebrows up - so what could be the problem.

Despite my uncanny resemblance to the balding iconic action hero, I must confess that I do also possess something of a dandyish streak. This is what had led me to choose my sandstone-coloured brogues over the more sensible option of my well-gripped but unchic cross-trainers.

In effect, I'd made my own informal risk assessment and decided that the drawbacks of me dying in a freak peddle-slip accident were outweighed by the catastrophic consequences of turning up to a posh restaurant in a pair of gaspingly vulgar trainers.

Also, although the van was, I feel, unnecessarily close behind me, I very much doubt whether, had I been injured I would have had a strong case for 100 percent compensation. Really, any regular cyclist should know better than I did.

I have not told my wife. We all hate telling people they were right, particularly when there is shameful truth at the heart of the confession.

I just know that I'm going to try and use the incident to remind myself of how even the tiniest bit of recklessness can carry a real risk of suffering accident injuries - it's not just myself I have to worry about, it's also my wife and the twins.

Can I claim?