I was overtaking near Corran (long time ago) when the back tyre went; I fought to keep the bike upright but soon lost, hit the road and went unconscious.

When I came round my neck ached and some do-gooder was trying to remove my crash helmet-a worrying combination.

I got up and starting pacing around (I was full of energy), pulled the bike upright, did some more marching then gently removed my badly scraped crash helmet. I was being told repeatedly to sit down but I couldn’t stay still, I paced back and forward and worried about my neck.

An ambulance arrived after a while and I had calmed down a bit so I sat in the ambulance and waited for the police. The ambulance man asked where I was going and I replied I didn’t know, he then asked where I had been and got the same reply. Later the Policeman turned up and asked if I had been drinking, I told him I had no idea, we got the answer when the breathalyser reading was negative.

I spent a night in the Belford Hospital, they woke me at regular intervals through the night to see if my brain was working OK, I was then signed off from work with whiplash. Brian Williamson and I had planned to go to France but I decided to still go as it had been paid for.

We got to Barney and Jackie’s flat in Marseille then we were driven north.

I was really sore and shouldn’t have climbed but I hadn’t done much at Verdon so another route was a big temptation.

We did a few abseils down a corner from bunches of slings round trees. I thought it was odd passing a tree draped with slings as I followed Barney and Brian. I got to the end of the ropes; they didn’t reach the ground (because we had saved time by missing out an abseil!). I was told to solo down the overhanging hand crack while pulling down one of the ends, the crack was short, below was a slope, if I fell and didn’t stop there was a drop of a few hundred feet, I managed to get down after a lot of cursing.

The climb Barney chose was OK but with my injuries I couldn’t twist my back or turn my head to look for holds on the left so found it desperate.

After ten days of stretching and pulling between bolts in Provence my neck was still tender but I was feeling much better and was happy with my leading.

Photo above Brian’s bike on the left, mine on the right.

Photo below Verdon by Robert Moody.