Help with cycling fear

[Icouldstillbejoseph]

I am being pathetic

After running for years I have decided to do a triathlon. I have a nice shiny new road bike all the gear no idea and have been out for 5 crap rides.

I have not used clip pedals before and have managed to fall off twice. Once, and this still baffles me, where I was completely still with one foot un-clipped - and I STILL managed to fall over. Took a large piece of skin off my knee (which flapped nicely in the bloody breeze on the ride home).

Anyway, I've not ridden a bike since I was about 8. I'm crap at it. I'm nervous of cars, gravel, junctions, bumps, going downhill, corners - anything really.

I can barely manage to signal without wobbling - let alone reach for a drink.

I really want someone (other than DH who is a good cyclist and trying to be encouraging) to tell me this is all normal, that I can still do a tri and tips for generally manning-up.

Sigh.

DP learned to ride a bike 'properly' last year. He went straight from flat pedals to SPDs, but probably covered a couple of hundred km in total for making the transition.

I OTOH used toe clips for years until DP convinced me to move to SPDs. Massive difference, much less faff. Toe clips are a pain in the backside.

I'd go flat until you lose the wobble then back onto clipless at a low tension The ordinary pedal on one side are a good shout and the ones I started with had a fairly loose minimum tension. (I presume you or your DP have made sure your current ones are set up correctly. I got a new bike, whacked on a set of SPDs and nearly did the side plant at a junction because I didn't realise they were set on maximum tension and didn't expect the effort required to escape )

Being wary of gravel (on a road bike) & cars is a good thing, but if it's distracting you from improving your cycling, are there any cycle paths nearby?

Signalling and grabbing the water bottle will take time.

Oh and I've never done a triathlon, but DP did a sportive (92km) with me after a few months of random pootling but probably only 10 weeks of 'serious' training.

I did 4 triathlons this year. I'm still a nervous cyclist on the roads, although it's the cars rather than the cleats that scare me (live in London), although downhills, sharp bends, holes/gravel on the road etc all also worry me. I improve my cycling fitness on a Wattbike in the gym, and cycle on the roads at times when it's very quiet (v early on weekend mornings, basically). I'm sure I'd be a better triathlete if I was more confident on a bike, but I'm an okay triathlete as it is and hopefully I can build my cycling confidence over time.