I thought it was just a buckled wheel which would cost $20 to fix.

Nope, the forks are rooted and need replacing as well as a few other little things adding up to a total of $430.

I guess the bike that I bought for $700 at least 5 or 6 years ago is going to that big Tour De France in the sky.

I’ll keep it for spare parts or something but it truly is a sad day with close to 3,000 km on it for the last year alone - that’s quite a few hours in the saddle.

Still, at least when I return home to poverty and the dole after my trip I’ll be able to spend around $1,000 on a nice new road bike with carbon forks and so on.

I have a sore finger.