Advocacy & Safety - Extreme Cycling Fatailities and Life Insurance Claims

My local club lost a member two weeks ago, after crashing near the bottom of one of the steepest descents on the Georgia "Six Gap Century" ride, however, since no one was with her when she fell, it is unknown whether she fell due to excessive speed, or, if she collided with an animal, however, her severe injuries seemed to indicate excessive speed was at least partially to blame (apparently, from what was found, she was not struck by a vehicle)...

From what I know, this woman was one of the "fast group", and, though I did not know her, from what I've read about her, apparently her skills were increasing over time, but, it left me wondering, considering our local cycling environment is flat with the only "hills" being interstate overpasses, that, perhaps, similar to an airplane pilot that lives and flies in Florida but then attempts to fly the Rockies during the Winter, perhaps this woman exceeded her bicycling skills and crashed as a result...

I learned that lesson many years ago, when participating in one of the LAB's (then LAW) annual bicycle rallies, and, during my experience in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I quickly learned that the local cyclists were very skilled at mountain cycling - both uphill and downhill, and, that it could be very easy to make a mistake, especially on the descent...

I also wonder about this woman's family when it comes to a life insurance claim - weekend athletes who attempt to ride like a professional rider might cause an insurance company to contest the claim (this ride was promoted by challenging cyclists to "ride the roads the pros ride during the Tour of Georgia"), and, similar to extreme mountain bicyclists who are killed due to their unusual addicition to the most dangerous trails (better known as "challenging"), again, I wonder if insurance companies take a dim view of the extreme weekend athlete of today, and, whether their settlement of life insurance claims are often at a reduced amount, since the fatality could have been avoided...

What made me think even further was after learning that some descents on the Six Gap ride were as much as 15 degrees - twice the descent of our local interstate bridge "hills", and, further increasing the chance that this poor woman exceeded her own skills by attempting to ride a course that required her to descend a hill at a much steeper angle and speed than her skills were accustomed to...

Glades2
Florida

Operating a lawful vehicle on a public road is "extreme"?

Operating a lawful vehicle on a public road is "extreme"?

It is to the insurance company if this woman was descending at 60 or 70 mph - similar to the Ninja biker who gets into an accident because he or she was going 140 mph - I hope those families do not expect to collect anything if a life insurance claim is filed, because, the person did something similar to controlled suicide...

In this woman's case, I'm sure, based on what everyone wrote of her, she was only enjoying the ride, but, my worry is that as one of the "fast crowd" from an area that is without hills, she may have attempted the same in a mountainous area, on a road with a 15 degree descent, and, crashed as a result...

What weekend athletes forget is just that - they are weekend athletes, with an amateur athlete's amount of experience, especially if the cyclist is not used to riding in hills or mountains at severe road angles...

I mentioned the flying analogy earlier because I was involved in aviation for a number of years, and, often, private pilots do crash, because, as found later, they exceeded their skill level by flying into a situation that they were not used to - the same is possible in this woman's accident...

Glades2

Someone paid the premiums for this woman's life insurance policy. The company placed its usual bet against her dying. Unless they can prove that she intended to kill herself, which is highly unlikely, I do not see how they can (or should) avoid paying the claim.

Someone paid the premiums for this woman's life insurance policy. The company placed its usual bet against her dying. Unless they can prove that she intended to kill herself, which is highly unlikely, I do not see how they can (or should) avoid paying the claim.

I would imagine that life insurance policies have provisions about reckless behavior. From the damage to the bicycle and other evidence at the scene, assuming it is not tainted, some idea of her riding should be able to be inferred?

roughstuff

John E,

Yes, you would think since she was just riding the century for the enjoyment of it, but, in today's economy, based on how large a person's policy is, you can bet the company might resist, citing that the death did not have to occur if the person had not been a participant at an event that was touted as being "challenging" (as Roughstuff mentioned, the "reckless behavior" factor), and, that's the problem - it's likely that the person did not intend to inflict harm on herself, but, the intent was there to participate in an event that was known to have a level of extreme cycling...

I'm sure, in today's crazy world, that insurance companies, especially for younger adults (as this woman was) do have policies written to prevent paying if the person decides to bungee jump off a bridge (per last week's news), and, ends up as a fatality...

While a person can get killed just sitting at home, there are just some things that are outside the box of being reasonable, and, downhill cycling at 60 mph or more is one of those things...

My guess is that the insurance company would investigate the death, and, perhaps even request medical records, to try to determine what happened (the person was treated on-scene by two doctors, and, was airlifted, and, was an ICU patient for almost one week, so, a good treatment history exists)...

As a cyclist, what comes to my mind is the nature of the event itself - if she were on a "average" ride and fell after hitting a pothole and died as a result of the injuries, that would be another matter, but, to participate in an event that was know to have it's dangers, and, was actually the reason her group participated (by what was written on their web site) is another issue...

Just a footnote - I certainly wish the family well, but, it did trouble me that it's the mindset of today's very fast clubs, since, they often do exceed their skill level...

As mentioned at the start, I learned my lesson a long time ago in the mountains of Virginia - being from Florida, I felt like a novice when it came to riding with cyclists who live and cycle the mountains every week, and, my guess is that this woman just got into a situation that exceeded her skill level and paid the ultimate price...

Hopefully, if the insurance company looks at it that way, they will not contest her parent's claim, and, hopefully others will learn from this tragedy, and, at least will try to be more skilled in cycling mountain roads before attempting rides such as the Six Gap Century...

Glades2

To not pay a life insurance settlement because someone lost their life on a section of road that someone labeled as challenging would be absurd and easily contested in court.

Way to many assumptions in this thread, especially the OP.

Hopefully, if the insurance company looks at it that way, they will not contest her parent's claim, and, hopefully others will learn from this tragedy, and, at least will try to be more skilled in cycling mountain roads before attempting rides such as the Six Gap Century...

Glades2


Or reach some middle ground. If the insurance company has to pay in full, then premiums will rise for us pokey riders in order to subsidize reckless behavior. Just like automobile insurance, where higher premiums are assigned to drivers who have poor driving records, insurance companies have every right to insert 'reckless clauses' (for lack of a better name) in their policies, and/or charge more for coverage of certain acts.

roughstuff

Way to many assumptions in this thread, especially the OP.

Well, by anticipating and working out the logic and justice of various scenarios, alot of pain, heartache, and money can be saved.

roughstuff

Easily contested, but in most cases, insurance company lawyers > lawyers hired by family.

Just wish to point out the following assumptions that should be taken into question:


It is to the insurance company if this woman was descending at 60 or 70 mph...

What was she descending at?


What weekend athletes forget is just that - they are weekend athletes, with an amateur athlete's amount of experience, especially if the cyclist is not used to riding in hills or mountains at severe road angles...

What was her experience level?

-Kurt

Just wish to point out the following assumptions that should be taken into question:



What was she descending at?



What was her experience level?

-Kurt


Those are assumptions (or more exactly, unknowns, where on bikeforums are working out the permutations) which can probably be determined by interviews at the scene and forensic evidence.

Charging greater premiums for reckless behavior is merely the flip side of charging lower premiums for positive steps such as not smoking, etc.

roughstuff

You mostly can't have an accidental death without someone doing something stupid. Whether the insurance pays doesn't depend on what they'd like to do or whether the woman was reckless or not, but on what the policy said. If it excluded deaths due to "reckless behavior" or "extreme sports", that would be one thing. if not, it's a moot point.

I would interpret "challenging" as meaning tiring or exhausting, not dangerous. Riding around the block 800 times is challenging.

Just wish to point out the following assumptions that should be taken into question:



What was she descending at?



What was her experience level?

-Kurt
AND what difference does it make unless the life insurance policy has some sort of exclusion from payment IN WRITING for death by riding a bicycle too fast or failure to be at an "approved" experience level.

The OP's foil hat needs to stapled tighter. His imagination is running wild.

It's a massive stretch to label any road century anywhere "extreme." I don't care how steep the descent is.

Doesn't seem like there is enough information to determine what exactly happened and you are thrusting forth with a lot of assumptions in a curious fashion.

It is to the insurance company if this woman was descending at 60 or 70 mph ...

Where are you getting this stuff? Did someone other than you make the claim she was descending at 60-70 mph? If so, please tell us who so they can be ridiculed.

There is next to zero percent that any life insurance company would contest paying on a death like this, as a basic understanding of insurance law would show.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg194/unregistered_coward/FacePalm3.jpg

The things we find to worry about

15% or 15 degree hill? On a 15 degree hill I'd only get up to 30-40mph.

15% or 15 degree hill? On a 15 degree hill I'd only get up to 30-40mph.

If you'd eaten your revolutionary bananas, you could probably hit 60.

What she did may have been dumb, but, imo, it was a long way from extreme.

When I think extreme, I think of idiots who purposely ski off cliffs.

They should not be paid insurance claims unless the writer knew going in what they did. But, I doubt anyine would write such a policy.

If this woman is denied her claim, it sets a bad precedent and each one of us that rides at "lethal" speeds, which could be considered anything over maybe 30 mph, better watch out.

Life Insurance companies usually cover deaths for virtually any reason. Being stupid or doing something rash that is fatal does not void the policy. The insurance companies go by the actuarial tables and those work pretty well.

Does anyone have any actual experience or anecdote about an insurance company denying a claim because of extreme sport death? Otherwise, this thread is kind of moot...

Whenever I've applied for life insurance, they tend to ask a series of questions: are you a licensed pilot? Do you parachute? Do you race any type of vehicle? Do you SCUBA dive? That's all I've ever run into. If I was ever asked, "Do you have a motorcycle license?" or "Do you ride a bicycle competitively?", I'd be hanging up pronto after finding out details about why they were asking and find another insurance company to deal with.

If >40mph is going to void life insurace, how could anybody riding a motorcycle get life insurance? Is life insurance void when dying in a drunk driving incident?

Thanks to all who posted since I went off-line yesterday afternoon...

Per Kurt's and Pat's comments - I've never ridden the Six-Gap Century, but, per my club's web site on this accident:

"...On the mountain known as Hogpen, which is the most difficult climb of all, the first two miles of the descent are terribly steep before leveling off a bit and then resuming the descent. It was towards the end of those two miles, that [our friend] had her accident...."

After researching the ride on the Southern Bicycle League's web site, I discovered, to my surprise, that some of the Six Gap descents are at 15%, which, knowing of our favorite local causeway bridge's 8% descent, which we flatlanders consider steep, (incidentially, two other club members and myself were asked for our input on this bridge's bikeway design at a meeting with the State DOT, so, we knew well of it's angle), on our bridge descent we routinely would reach 40-45 mph over 1/4 - 3/8 mile, so, in the case of Hogpen, that 2-mile descent at 15% would easily reach the speeds seen during the Tour de France - or 60 mph when nearing the bottom of many similiar descents, per the Versus commentators, since Hog Pen was one of the mountains on the Tour de Georgia ride, so, it's reasonable to say this climb and descent is in the Alpine category - far more difficult than our local Southern Florida cyclists are used to encountering...

After reading the comments, I did not start the thread to critize a deceased club member, since this woman was well regarded among her friends - I only met her once or twice in the past few years, and, from what I could gather from everyting I knew of her, it seemed she was like many club cyclists - a noivce at the start, but, after the purchase of an expensive bicycle, began to increase her speed, and, began to ride with the faster groups, but, my own impression (from being around this sport for almost 32 years), is that her skills did not equal the category of rides that she attended, and, that's always a recipe for trouble...

As we all know, peer pressure and other factors sometimes force a club member to take on too much, usually due to the fact that their friends are on the more advanced rides, and, this often results in a person with a limited amount of experience or stamina attempting rides that are beyond their skills...

As Pat mentioned, the insurance tables are used to determine what the insurance company needs to do, however, unlike when I started cycling in the mid 1970's, today, extreme sports of all kinds are constantly taking their toll of people who attempt things that just are not meant to be attempted, and, in the case of our late club member, my guess (again, based on my own experience) is that perhaps she just got in over her head, and, lost control at a very high speed...

Incidentially, I work for people who investigate fatailities (not insurance adjusters), and, as I was once taught when taking flying lessons, an accident is usually not the result of just one bad decision, but, usually is the result of a string of bad decisions...

Still, I posted this since it does seem that perhaps as a sport, like other sports that have also migrated to the extreme side, we must start to realize that there is a limit to everything, before we end up exceeding our own limits...

As said about illegal street drag racing, the "need for speed" seems to be to blame for this and many other accidents...

Glades2

Oh - I just found this on the bikeride.com web site:

"...The Six Gap Century’s ultra challenging route takes you up and down six of the steepest climbs in the North Georgia Mountains. Test your stamina with more than 10,700 feet of vertical climbing over the 100 mile course. Elevations for the six gaps in this ride range from 2,949 feet to 3,490 feet. The toughest climb, Hogpen Gap, will test even the strongest riders, averaging a 7% grade for seven miles, with sections as steep as 15%...."

Wow - after reading this, my airplane analogy of yesterday really gives me something to think about - we have NOTHING here in South Florida in the way of hills, and, for a cyclist from this area to attempt the above is again similar to my flying a Cessna in Florida's fairly predictable weather, only to attempt a first time flight across the Rockies in the middle of Winter...

Apparently, this poor gal just got in over her head and crashed as a result - may she rest in God's peace...

And, more discernment needs to be taken when attempting such a ride - there's no shame in saying that a certain ride is too difficult to attempt at a certain time in a person's cycling career...

Glades2

ILTB and a couple of other posters are exactly right. In order for something to be excluded from life insurance coverage, the exclusion must be clearly and explicitly set out in the policy. It also must be very specific - a basic principle of insurance law is that any ambiguity is resolved in favor of the policy holder. There is certainly no provision that the death has to occur while the policy holder is acting "reasonably."

And of course in this case, the woman was riding her bicycle on a public road when she lost control of her bicycle, crashed, and died. No insurance company is going contest paying out forthat - and if they did, they would quickly lose.

Thanks - from everyone's comments, it seems that the claim should be settled quickly, thankfully, though I'd still be interested to hear the opinion of an insurance agent or adjuster, if one is on here...

So, it seems again the matter of discernment when knowing what ride to do or to stay away from - per my days when taking flying lessons, I was taught that knowing one's limits is critical - as they would say, that's not something written in the seam of the person's clothes, but, is a knowledge that is learned over time and must be remembered...

During the height of my cycling career, I made the mistake of attempting the 170-mile Cross Florida Ride, and, regretted that decision, since my longest rides were the standard century, so, to attempt something that long was far beyond my skill level, and, even though in my heart I knew that it was beyond my endurance limit, I attempted it anyway - only to realize my error after the fact...

In this gal's case, perhaps it was a combination of things (peer pressure, over confidence, excessive speed, lack of mountain cycling experience, physical fatigue, etc.) that lead to this accident, so, I'll guess, as someone as proactive in the sport as she was, I'm sure she would want us to learn from her mistakes in future situations...

Glades2

If >40mph is going to void life insurace, how could anybody riding a motorcycle get life insurance? Is life insurance void when dying in a drunk driving incident?

Apples and oranges.

A motorcycle is similar to a bike in that they both have 2 wheels, but, that's about it.

Motorcycles are designed for much higher speeds. They are much heavier built. They have suspensions and much more powerful brakes.

I have been on a bike at 45 mph and a motorcycle at 145 mph. Very similar sensations.

Real simple, unless the insurance policy had a specific EXCLUSION for the type of behavior she was engaged in, then it has to pay. And no, there are no exclusions in life insurance policies for going fast or even wrecklessly fast on the roads. If there were, evey single life insurance claim based on a car accident would be contested, and they are not.

The usual exclusions are for piloting small aircraft, skydiving and participating in car/motorcycle RACES.

I disagree with the danger assessment there. If you'll notice the wording, the challenging part was the climbs, not the descent.

Regardless of how steep and long the descent is, you either have adequate brakes or you don't. If you don't, you just shouldn't be there, period. If you do, then it's entirely up to you as to whether you go down at 5 mph or 15 mph or 50 mph or 75 mph. If you crash under those circumstances, it's not because the descent was dangerous, it's because you chose to descend at a dangerous speed. It would be similar to having a crash at 120 mph in your car when you could have just as easily been going 30.

Although I don't think to highly of most insurance companies either. And I wouldn't be surprised if they would argue your point to avoid paying. I don't like the implications that if I don't have a pro license then I must not ride at a skill level enabling me to go down hills. My Drivers license allows me to drive in Ohio and Colorado even if I am afraid of hills. So why would I be sanctioned for not riding a bike at a "down hill" skill level.
I agree that maybe she was exceeding a safe speed, but I've been in dangerous situations at 5 mph. Have you ever ridden over an overpass or bridge with no shoulder? When riding near the edge of the road, I've realized that those barriers are made for vehicles that are much lower to the ground. If a car were to tap me even slightly, or if I hit a pothole I could be knocked over the barrier to the roadway below at any speed. Does that mean that my skill level does not permit me to cross bridges?
As for the prerequisite insurance questions, it's all a matter of interpretation. Am I a licensed pilot? "No I fly without a license", Do I parachute?, "No I sky dive", Do you ride a bicycle competitively?, "No I suck at, but I ride anyway"

Apparently, this poor gal just got in over her head and crashed as a result - may she rest in God's peace...

And, more discernment needs to be taken when attempting such a ride - there's no shame in saying that a certain ride is too difficult to attempt at a certain time in a person's cycling career...


You have no idea what happened. Hitting a small animal as mentioned in your OP seems more plausible to me.

EDIT: Okay, reports indicate that her fork was broken and possibly her wheel was not attached to the bike. If it's true that the wheel wasn't attached to the bike that tells me that the wheel falling off was the cause of the crash. It happens if you or someone with you doesn't put the wheel on properly, but the wheel doesn't just come out of the dropouts in a crash. If the wheel was still attached the broken fork means she hit something, perhaps an animal, or even a hit-and-run car that was headed up the hill. In any case, she did NOT simply lose control and crash due to being over her head on "extreme" terrain as has been repeatedly and curiously stated by the OP.

...we must start to realize that there is a limit to everything, before we end up exceeding our own limits...

As said about illegal street drag racing, the "need for speed" seems to be to blame for this and many other accidents...


Why don't you limit your tasteless speculation about the cause of the victim's accident as well as your baseless claims about her life insurance benefits being in doubt? You exceeded your limits of knowledge about both subjects from your first post and you keep piling it on.

To not pay a life insurance settlement because someone lost their life on a section of road that someone labeled as challenging would be absurd and easily contested in court.Ultimately, it would all depend on what the contract says. I imagine that most life insurance policies won't pay out in the event of a suicide, for example -- that's a pretty standard clause. They could add a clause that deaths caused by `extreme sports' also don't qualify, and if they did, then it would depend on exactly how that was defined. I do not know if such clauses are commonly used or not, but I would have a hard time justifying riding legally and in a normal way on a road, not exceeding the speed limit, to be an `extreme sport'.

Insurance companies don't like to pay claims. If the contract gives them a way to not pay, they will use it in the majority of cases. (And the only exceptions will be if not paying somehow costs them more, like not paying for one employee will cause the entire company to ditch them, or it being put on the 6 o'clock news making them look really bad, etc.)

Just so I'm clear ... what matters is what the contract says. That is by far the most important thing, and if you can't look at the contract, all you can do is guess based on what typical contracts say.

EDIT: Okay, reports indicate that her fork was broken and possibly her wheel was not attached to the bike. If it's true that the wheel wasn't attached to the bike that tells me that the wheel falling off was the cause of the crash. It happens if you or someone with you doesn't put the wheel on properly, but the wheel doesn't just come out of the dropouts in a crash. If the wheel was still attached the broken fork means she hit something, perhaps an animal, or even a hit-and-run car that was headed up the hill. In any case, she did NOT simply lose control and crash due to being over her head on "extreme" terrain as has been repeatedly and curiously stated by the OP.

Forks don't break out of the blue, much less are you going to find someone riding a broken (mind you, broken - not bent) fork without knowing about it.

It would make considerably more sense if the front wheel was jarred loose from the bike during the descent by some means or another, causing the fork to contact the pavement. THIS would be plausible.

-Kurt

Ok, timeout! It appears that no one here has ever read a life insurance policy contract. #1 Excessive/unacceptable risks are part of the application process before a policy is approved. Current applications do ask about dangerous activities such as skydiving, scuba divining, handgliding, etc. Bicycling is not on the list, not even "high speed". Professional athletics are asked about. Unless you're requesting an expeptionally high benefit policy its unlikely that an exclusion for an activity would be included. Instead the rate/premium would be raised accordingly or the application declined.

#2. Once the policy is issued, if you later take up the dangerous activities there's no way for the company to change, decline or deny a claim. They can investigate whether you lied and were doing these activities but said you weren't. In that case they can deny or amend the claim for fraud. #3.Even suicide is excluded for normally only 2 years. The intent is to glean out predictable excessive risks. One normally does not contemplate suicide 3 years in advance, so they didn't buy the policy with the intent of just getting the money.

Insurance companies generally are not looking for ways not pay claims, but are simply applying the language of the contract accordingly. There are some companies that do look to simply deny claims, but there are few fortunately.

15 degree hill is 27%. Anybody living in Florida should check their bike for shimmy at speed before they take steep descents on a long ride.

Forks don't break out of the blue, much less are you going to find someone riding a broken (mind you, broken - not bent) fork without knowing about it.

It would make considerably more sense if the front wheel was jarred loose from the bike during the descent by some means or another, causing the fork to contact the pavement. THIS would be plausible.

Yes, if it's true that the fork was broken and the wheel was not attached to the bike, the most likely explanation is the wheel came off during the descent (due to failure to secure it properly) and the fork broke upon impact with the ground. Another possibility is that she was riding on a faulty or damaged fork which failed under heavy braking, but the wheel would almost certainly still be attached to at least one of the dropouts if that happened.

Too many questions. There's not enough info for someone 1500 miles away to say exactly what happened but we can eliminate some possibilities if the info we do have is reliable.

Her name was Daniella Izquierdo.

Insurance companies generally are not looking for ways not pay claims, but are simply applying the language of the contract accordingly. You make it sound like the two are not related ...

Insurance companies are in the business of making money. They're a business, after all. Paying claims costs money, so if they can avoid paying a claim, they will. And the usual, most effective way of not paying a claim is having a contract that does not require them to pay the claim. It's not `wrong' or `immoral' -- it's business.

As for dangerous activities, yes, they may ask you about them before they sign you up. But they may also be in the contract. You may not skydive when you signed up, but you try it later, and die -- if the contract says that skydiving deaths aren't covered, guess what? It's all about what's in the contract, and to some degree, the law. (The law may override or make some aspects of a contract unenforcable.)

Also, as far as the questions they ask you when you sign up -- if you lie about the smallest thing, even if it's not a lie but an honest mistake, they may rescind (http://expertpages.com/news/insurers_rescission.htm) your policy. Even after your death, or after some expensive medical procedure (my comments about insurance are certainly not restricted to life insurance.) And quite often, when they're asked to make a large payout (the guy with life insurance dies, expensive medical procedure for medical insurance, etc.) they'll start going over your paperwork with a fine tooth comb, looking for errors that they can use to rescind your policy.

To say it again ... if you want to know what your policy covers, read it. Don't guess, don't read a different policy, don't make assumptions -- read your policy.

...
Incidentially, I work for people who investigate fatailities (not insurance adjusters), and, as I was once taught when taking flying lessons, an accident is usually not the result of just one bad decision, but, usually is the result of a string of bad decisions...
Glades2Then there really is no excuse for you repeatedly throwing out such baseless speculation, is there.:rolleyes:

Then there really is no excuse for you repeatedly throwing out such baseless speculation, is there.:rolleyes:

It's not untrue... I routinely look over accident reports at work and you'll typically see a laundry list of mistakes, most of which if not made would have averted the accident. You have to understand though that these mistakes are rarely obvious and in many cases the wrong decision can seem like the right one. But if one were to read an accident report for this specific fatality, an investigator would probably find plenty of contributing and causal factors for her loss of control and subsequent death. That's not to say that any of these should or could void her life insurance claim.

Forks don't break out of the blue, much less are you going to find someone riding a broken (mind you, broken - not bent) fork without knowing about it.

It would make considerably more sense if the front wheel was jarred loose from the bike during the descent by some means or another, causing the fork to contact the pavement. THIS would be plausible.

-Kurt

Just a comment about forks. I hear quite a few people talking about the fragility of carbon fiber forks. Well, they can be quite robust. I was riding my aluminum cannondale one morning with an HID head light. A guy driving an SUV decided to drive on the wrong side of the road in to make a left hand turn easier and he did not bother to look. So I got hit head on. It was pretty low speed but still head on. The collision shattered my cannondale frame. It was completely broken in about 6 places maybe more. The fork looked fine. I did not use it again but it was intact. I doubt that a carbon fiber fork would come apart on a high speed descent unless you ran head long into an oak tree.

27% slope? Anyone riding a 27% slope in Florida should check their math! The bike shimmy or more likely to be caused by running over an alligator than by riding down a 27% slope in Florida.

My local club lost a member two weeks ago, after crashing near the bottom of one of the steepest descents on the Georgia "Six Gap Century" ride, however, since no one was with her when she fell, it is unknown whether she fell due to excessive speed, or, if she collided with an animal, however, her severe injuries seemed to indicate excessive speed was at least partially to blame (apparently, from what was found, she was not struck by a vehicle)...

From what I know, this woman was one of the "fast group", and, though I did not know her, from what I've read about her, apparently her skills were increasing over time, but, it left me wondering, considering our local cycling environment is flat with the only "hills" being interstate overpasses, that, perhaps, similar to an airplane pilot that lives and flies in Florida but then attempts to fly the Rockies during the Winter, perhaps this woman exceeded her bicycling skills and crashed as a result...

Florida

I would hope, God forbid, if anything ever as tragic as this ever happened to me, that there would never be anyone, ESPECIALLY someone from my own cycling club, making such spurious and thoughtless comments about my motivation for riding a "challenging" course and further speculating about the payout on my life insurance policy.

Mom,

First, this is a cycling forum, and, my intent to start the topic was because I've heard of too many deaths that result from injuries that perhaps could have been avoided - it would be a tragedy indeed if someone passed away, for example, during an extreme sporting event, only for their spouse or children to be later told that the insurance company will only pay a certain percentage of the policy's worth due to the circumstances that surrounded the person's death...

Perhaps it's because I'm older, that I now see that we tend to take rides like this for granted - when I was a club cyclist in my early 20's, we'd ride moonlight rides at 1 a.m., we'd draft support vehicles, etc., and, if I had lost my life, it would have been because I was taking unnecessary risks...

Now, in the case of our decased club member, again (I wish folks would read my comments in total before being critical, but, that's life...), I'm sure this dear woman was only there because, she, like all of us here, enjoyed riding the bicycle and was doing what brought her happiness, but, my point (again, mentioned in my earlier posts) was perhaps she attempted this very difficult ride when in fact it was perhaps too much above her own skill level, very similar to a skiier who goes from the novice slope to an alpine course...

Again, there's no shame in saying that a certain type of ride is above my skill level - over the years, there were rides that sounded very interesting to me to the point of considering them (for example, my fellow club members who rode the TAT, RAAM or BPB), but, to attempt it on my part would have been placing myself at risk - that's what happened to me during my attempt of the Cross Florida Ride many years ago - I knew in my heart that 170 miles in one day was beyond my skills, but, I tried it anyway, and, paid the price, but, am glad that I'm here today to talk about it...

Perhaps that's why I feel strongly about this death, since, this woman made a honest attempt at completing this ride, but, perhaps, like myself and others, wondered if it was above her means...

As we know, at times like that, peer pressure can do some pretty bad things - no one wants to tell others that they are not up to something, even if their heart tells them so...

Hopefully, as I'm sure Daniella would say, good will come from this tragedy that will help other cyclists avoid this type of accident...

Sincerely,

Glades2

27% slope? Anyone riding a 27% slope in Florida should check their math! The bike shimmy or more likely to be caused by running over an alligator than by riding down a 27% slope in Florida.

The steepest slope in FL is about 15% and that for a very short distance. Anyone who rides a 27% slope in FL has to be doing so with the aid of medication.

Just a comment about forks. I hear quite a few people talking about the fragility of carbon fiber forks.

All have their up and down points, but in this particular case, the only fork I would not expect to break (provided the front wheel did run out) would be steel. Even then, it would bend pretty badly.

-Kurt