Fifty Plus (50+) - While we are about talking riding in groups......

This is an email my brother sent me from Sunday's 100 miler that I also did with some details on his ride........


I was in a group of about 11 for most of the day. We got mixed up leaving a waterstop, and almost rode the Brevard loop twice. We ended up with 8 extra miles. But our biggest disaster came at our 79 mile mark, when one our 8 riders crashed, for no apparent reason, and the rider behind him went over his handlebars and fell hard, too. I was toward the back of the line, so watched it all unfold. We summoned emergency personnel, who arrived very quickly. I'm pretty sure the first guy down broke his right hip, as he couldn't move that joint. I'm not sure what injuries the second rider had, but neither one ever stood up, and they both left in the ambulance.

That brings back memories of my crash. *shudders* I didn't see how it happened but there were easily a dozen people involved, maybe more; I didn't pay attention to who got up and rode off after I crashed. All I know is that fast riding, pacelining, lack of communication, and not looking before moving to the left factor into the incident. There might be more but as I said, as soon as I was involved, the rest of the fallen faded into the background.

That's a shame about the guy with the broken hip and the others who didn't get up. I feel for them.

Yeah, it brings back memories for me too. Bad ones. I wish them the best of recoveries.

I try to be very careful of who I ride behind. I would never go to a charity ride and get in a line with strangers. In fact, I don't go to many charity/century events anymore because of the carnage.

I leave a generous following distance and discourage others from riding too closely behind me, because I know I am kind of wobbly and uneven in my pace, particularly in a crosswind.

This can happen in even small groups. Earlier this year I was riding in a club ride, the group had broken up into 3 packs - faster, medium and slower. I was in the middle group. I came around a corner to see three bikers from the faster group all over the road. Apparently there was a frost heave in the road that was not visible and it sent bikes flying. I am glad they positioned someone at the turn to slow the rest of us down and point out the hazard. Now I am do a lot of first responder work so I immediately went into rescue mode and checked out the fallen riders. One had a possible shoulder dislocation, another a possible hip or pelvic fracture and the third - bad road rash. All three went away in ambulances. This was not a pace line issue - just bad luck.

BTW - the state police came by and painted to road orange at the hazard. I had a bad run in with a frost heave a few years back - knocked the bars right out of my hands at about 25mph - man did that hurt.:cry:

I try to be very careful of who I ride behind. I would never go to a charity ride and get in a line with strangers. In fact, I don't go to many charity/century events anymore because of the carnage.

I gave my report to the organizers and got a nice message in reply, but like you, I may skip these events for the same reason. I've crashed on the tandem in 2 centuries (doored once, car drifting into our lane/change of line in a downhill turn, and my solo crash in March) and frankly, I have no desire to wash, rinse repeat.

I think I have above-average bike handling skills, but when the road craps out and isn't marked, you're at the mercy of those in front of you. If I was paid to do this stuff, I'd be more aggressive. As an amateur I've become considerably more cautious and alert. And even so, you can still be taken out in a heartbeat.

Thus we ride as a tandem team in the front, or off the back. And I'm okay with that.

Since I'm still not cleared to ride my half-bike on the road, my thoughts on riding solo in a group post-crash are pending.

I suspect I'll not be racing crits for a while...