A twenty-something male had a terribly painful crash for no apparent reason on a perfectly smooth and clean stretch of blacktop. It was an ugly scene and I failed to get any details about his bike except that one front wheel spoke was broken at the nipple and gone, and the front wheel was rubbing hard on the brake. It was the lightest bike I ever touched and had the fewest spokes I've ever seen. Could the spoke have broken first, let the wheel out of true, and dumped the poor guy off? I saw the crash from 75 yards behind and would like to know if the modern wheel failure could be the cause.