Season 6. Episode 6. The Korcula Clothesline

October 1, 2026. Jelsa to Hvar town (Island of Hvar ), Croatia. 30 miles. 2,859’ climbing. 

We took a water taxi for the 25 minute crossing from Bol (island of Brac) to Jelsa (island of Hvar).

We learned our captain Arsen was 19 years old and looked 16 (braces does that to somebody). Given his youthful looks, and to me 19 is young, I wondered about our safety. 

In the middle of the Adriatic Sea, I started thinking about us capsizing or colliding with another boat and wondering if I’d be able to get my bike shoes off in the water to swim to shore. I sometimes imagine ridiculous scenarios. 

Safely transported, our ride from the port in Jelsa was immediately magnificent as we rode a coastal stretch that ended in Vrboska, a picturesque fishing village.

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Author’s note: We interrupt this Hvar blog to jump to the island of Korcula for an update. 

October 2, 2026. Vela Luka to Korcula town (Island of Korcula ), Croatia. 40 miles. 3,357’ climbing. 

Staying in old Hvar was a wonderful location, minus the stairs from the road up and down.

The ferry from Hvar (town) only ran to Korcula town all the way on the east side of the island of Korcula. In order to cycle from the furthest point west across the island, I had arranged for a taxi van to pick us up from our boat, and shuttle us 45 minutes west to the town of Vela Luca. 

Our Airbnb was 2 minutes from the ferry, so we dropped our panniers there and kept only essentials in our front handlebar bags before driving west in the taxi with our bikes. 

That gave us the opportunity to learn a lot more about local life from our driver Gabby. She told us about the forest fires that had burned on the island this past summer and closed the highway that we were driving across right now. I’d also learned on Hvar that they also experienced forest fires this past summer. I thought how lucky are we that the fires are over and it’s not affecting this adventure, as the fires in Washington State caused us a three day detour back in 2024. 

We also learned from Gabby that while island life has many perks and is quite beautiful, the medical care available on the island is fairly basic.  If you need a specialist, you need to go off the island into one of the main cities like Split, Dubrovnik or the capital Zagreb. 

Lastly, Gabby issued us several warnings about cycling safely. She warned us about no shoulders on the roads and although local drivers are all good, all the tourists in rental vehicle are not used to cyclists or how to safely and properly pass them. She sternly warned us not to ride one right after the other as cars need space to pass one cyclist, not passing two at the same time.  It all felt kind of ominous.

In Vela Luka, we checked out the world’s longest mosaic that runs through the town. 

Mosaic Workshop Ambalaža is where the mosaics are actually created before being installed around town. The project has encouraged visitors to participate in making mosaics themselves.

We emailed a month ago about us participating with a brief visit. They replied to me with dismissive scorn that a “brief visit is superficial and meaningless.”

Naturally, we had a favorite that spoke to us. No more of a need for us to make one on our own.

The town of Blato.

I was eager to leave as readers may recall in Season 1 that I had several terrifying dog chases.

View of Blato after climbing up from it.

The water is so clear.

At this excavated lot, soon to be built upon, we could see how little top soil there is. Shocking how thousands of olive trees and vineyards, along with so many other plants, grow here.

Riding on the coastal road along the South shore, we had a magnificent stretch from Gršćica to Prižba.

Korcula has several vineyards.

We rode through Smokvica, the heart of Posip wine country.

Pumpnatska Luka Beach.

We then had a big climb in front of us, followed by a descent on switchbacks, on a narrow lane to traverse from the south coast to the north coast. 

Just minutes before the photo above, I’d sent myself a voice memo: “What a fun day! Without panniers, it's like letting kids run free in the candy store, it is so light and carefree, climbing is faster and just such a fun day.”  

About 35 minutes later, at 4:30pm, we’d safely come down the switchbacks and were enjoying riding a flat coastal road in and out of coves back to our Airbnb in Korcula. 

With about 4.5 miles to go, we could see 3 men taking their boat out of the water ahead of us on the left. A sensible image as it was end of season. They were pulling the boat into the lane of traffic going in the opposite direction to us, leaving us plenty of room to pass them in our lane. I was about 3 feet from passing them when I suddenly noticed a thin steel cable going from the boat on my left across the road in front of me to my right. The cable seemed about chest high. I braked immediately, but the last thing I remembered before crashing was being entangled with the cable. The next thing I remembered was feeling the blood in my mouth as I lay on the ground. I recalled the impact of my helmet on the road, and feeling my nose and lip against the asphalt. I was afraid to open my mouth because I thought I’d spit chicklets. (Hockey player expression for when you lose your teeth in a game from a hard hit.) I was pretty sure from the pain that I’d lost a front tooth on top, maybe two. 

Here’s Heather’s description of what she saw as she was about 20-30’ behind me:

“So I’m coming around the bend and I’m right behind Mark and we’re going at a decent clip and we see all of a sudden there’s a boat on the road that some people were trying to pull out of the water. But there’s still room on the right to pass in our lane. Mark goes ahead and all of a sudden Mark yells and I watch him as he flips head first over his handlebars, literally like flying and lands.  I immediately stop and I’m like oh shit, how bad is this? For sure he broke bones, smashed his face, we need to go to the hospital and our trip is over.  I get to him and I’m like Mark, Mark are you OK? He lifted his head up and there was some blood, but fortunately he wasn’t gushing blood and he was coherent.”

As I lay on the ground, it’s amazing how many thoughts you can actually have in just seconds to a minute.  

I thought of the crazy irony it would be for me to suffer a spinal cord injury (SCI) while riding to promote awareness of SCI and to raise funds to find a cure. And so I thought of a new friend Ron who was paralyzed when hit by a car while cycling. 

I thought about the most common injury in cycling when you fall like I did (over the handlebars)is a broken clavicle. There’s an expression that there are two kinds of cyclists - Those who’ve broken their collarbone, and those who are going to. Since I broke my collarbone at age 15, I was pretty sure I hadn’t right now, as I knew that pain and this wasn’t it. 

I thought of people I know who’ve had bad crashes - Kevin, Zack, Seth, Sam - and their various injuries suffered. 

And that could have been the end of this episode. Or the end of the blog, period. What a perfect cliffhanger to stop here as I’m tired and it’s been a long enough blog already. But I realize that would be cruel, so here’s the rest of this episode.  

As I gathered my wits and came out of the shock, I was able to sit up. 

Heather helped me stop the bleeding  in my “mustache area” above my lip, to clean up and to assess my injuries. 

I ripped the skin in the mustache area, cut the bridge of my nose, my teeth hurt but were intact.  I cut my inside of my lips, and in my mouth, I had a swollen upper lip and got some road rash and bruising on my left leg above the knee. My hands were initially sore, but not injured. 

I looked at my face in a mirror and knew immediately that I’ll have a scar, and if this were home I’d definitely go to have a plastic surgeon stitch me up - no stitch needed to stop the bleeding but rather to have a better outcome without a scar given its prominent position on my face.  At home in the USA, they’d likely give me a head scan. I thought a lot about this and if I should leave the island tonight for a scan. After all, as Woody Allen once said: “My brain? That's my second favorite organ.”  I’d also see a dentist if at home. 

But I’m here on an island where I learned by eerie coincidence just earlier today that there are no specialists. 

As luck would have it, after a while, an American man and woman cycled by and spoke with us. I asked jokingly if either was a plastic surgeon. He was an internist in New York.  He reassured me that if needed, any scar could be touched up later. And given my coherence and how I felt, he wasn’t overly concerned about me needing to leave the island for care. She said you want to avoid local hospitals if you can. 

I realized what happened: the 3 men had the boat tied to a winch (mechanical device used to pull or tow by winding cable around a drum)  that was pulling a cable 1/4 inch thick across the entire road. 

Winch in position still.

I’d been clotheslined! As Maxwell Smart, agent 86 of TV fame, may have said it: “the old Korcula Clothesline trick”.  

Using another TV reference of my youth, it seemed like something that Wile E. Coyote would have done to ensnare the Road Runner. It was just so cartoonish, so ridiculous.

Of the 3 men who caused my injury, one was very apologetic. He offered us first aid supplies and offered to drive us and our bikes to medical care or to our lodging. He said to Heather “sorry, we were negligent”. duh, you think? The first thing I said to him was “are you kidding? You need to hold traffic up if doing that!” The other 2 men did not show any concern or say anything to me. 

I was doing everything right all day, going slow on the mountains downhill and mindful of Gabby’s advice. Damn she never warned me about boats and winches. But shit happens.

On the one hand, what are the odds of this happening? The exact minute they winched the boat when I came by. But on the other hand, given I went flying head first over my handlebars and landed mostly on my head and face, I’m defying the odds walking away from this fall. In fact, I’ve done better than walk. 

Just as lucky, surprisingly my bike was rideable. So I did what came naturally to me. I rode the 4.5 miles to our Airbnb, showered, and went with Heather to our dinner reservation and to walk around old Korcula town. 

At dinner that night.

I’ve been in touch with my dermatologist (who was an important help in seasons 1 and 2 as I battled saddle sores) and with one of my oldest friends since high school who is a plastic surgeon. I’ve been advised on wound care and I happen to travel with prescription antibiotic ointment stronger than an OTC product. 

As I know readers are wondering, I’ve now ridden for 4 days since and we’ve maintained our itinerary.  There have been some issues that I’ll try to write about. I’m still not 100%, but I’m good enough and feel improvement each day. Think about anybody with a chronic medical condition or disability, they’re never 100%, but they soldier on. 

It’s mind boggling how lucky I was. 

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We ride to raise funds for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. They are dedicated to curing spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life of those impacted by paralysis. Thank you to so many of you who have already generously donated an amazing  total over $19,000! If you’ve not yet had a chance to support the Reeve Foundation, please consider making a gift at Heather & Mark Ride for Reeve.

© Copyright Mark Segal 2026.