Three weeks ago I was riding along Blake Manor Rd, right near the Texaco gas station, when, WHAM, right in front of me one of our small group dropped her front wheel down this crack, immediately went over the handlebars and landed face first on the tarmac.

The blood exploded from her mouth, she lost four teeth and fractured her upper jaw; it was gruesome, I bailed rather than hit her and ended up with a scrape on my elbow and leg. It could have been much worse for her, she was wearing a helmet, and although it cracked, it did its’ job and protected her forehead and the frontal lobe of her brain.

Last Friday she wanted to see where the accident happened and so we agreed to meet up and I’d walk her through it. She bought a camera. What shocked me, driving from the west end of Blake Manor RD on 973, was just how bad shape this road was in. Yes, the drought is playing havoc with the road surface. It doesn’t help that much of the road on the south side falls off as the land slopes downhill. But simply put, this road is a hazard for car drivers. There are at least two sections where the road is likey to break away completely and there are dozens of sections with cracks almost as wide as a Dollar bill, and more than 5ft long.

Surprisingly, the actual crack where she crashed has been part filled, there seemed to be whole sections where tarmac has just been dumped on the road randomly and smoothed down. It’s really inconciveable that this road is in such poor shape, given that the frontage road of Mopac between Bee Caves and 360 seems to have been re-tarmaced recently, when it was one of the better roads anyway.

So, I advise ALL cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers to avoid Blake Manor Rd between 9730 and Lockwood Rd unless absolutely necessary. And unless you know otherwise, I declare this, the worst section of road in the greater Austin area, and possibly all of Texas!