Stay safe cycling with a tracker

Just over four years ago I went missing while out on an evening ride after work. The sun set, my dinner got cold and my wife had absolutely no idea where I was. I wasn't answering my phone and in her mind I could have been dead or in agony amongst the trees of any wood within a 20 mile radius. I was eventually found 5 hours after I left home, by a road worker. I was lying, still unconscious, at the side of the A27 close to the Shopwyke foot crossing, just east of Chichester. 

Any route out to the trails from my house takes me over the A27. The main link road along the south coast of England. I have no recollection of what happened that evening. My Garmin tells us I was on my way back, just a couple of miles from home. Then I didn't move for 3 hours. Amazingly I was largely unscathed apart from a head ache and a few scuffs and grazes. The main damage was psychological. I feel terrible for what my wife must have gone through. It must have become very apparent to her something bad had happened and there was absolutely no way for her locate me. She rang all my friends, but I was on my own and there was no advice or help they could offer. I'd be a mess if roles were reversed. I of course was actually blissfully oblivious, dozing away in the long grass. But I do think sometimes about what would have happened if my injuries had been more serious or that road worker hadn't spotted me amongst his traffic cones?

From that day on I have always ridden with some form of tracker with me, so people know where I am. Currently that is the Lifef360 app on my phone. I've used this to enable people to track me on adventures all over the world and it is great - provided you have phone signal. There were a few times on my South Downs Double ride when the app reported that I'd failed to move for 15 minutes. My family thought I'd come a cropper or had a puncture, while presumably I actually traversed a valley or was deep in a wooded area away from phone masts. I feel naked now if I realise in the middle of a fast descent that I've forgotten to turn on my mobile data.

For a long time this year the Shopwyke crossing on the A27, where I had my accident, has been closed. They have replaced the existing crossing with a bridge. I'd been finding alternative crossing points since my incident, but as soon as it opened I was eager to return to the most direct route out to Goodwood.

The walkway/cycleway is very wide, much wider than any other bridge in the area. It links two traffic free roads and I expect will become my primary crossing point again, now I can cross without having to dodge lorries and cars at 70mph.