Wife and I have had the tandem for a couple of years now. We're good riders. I was an experienced captain before. She's an exceptionally good stoker -- neutral, relaxed, reads the cranks well, puts the hammer down at the appropriate times, and is an excellent extra set of eyes and ears. Very trustworthy and trusting. Really, short of having Leontien Van Moorsel's wattage output, couldn't ask for a better stoker.

Soooo, I wonder if you all can help me with what I perceive as a small problem. In the two years we've been riding two-up, we've tasted the tarmac exactly twice: once about a year ago while crossing a low water crossing here in Central Texas. We'd been experiencing some unseasonably warm weather -- I'm talking 90s -- and I grossly underestimated the amount of algae that would have accumulated on the pavement in 1-2 inches of meandering water in April. Stoker shifted her weight just as our rear wheel entered the water. Like we were riding on ice -- down we went at very low speed. No worries, a little wet and one or two tiny scrapes for the pilot, but wife landed hard on her hip bone and was badly cut and bruised. She trooped the remaining 20 miles to the truck, but it shook me that she was as banged up as she was. Wrote it off to bad luck.

Then last night. Early evening, still plenty of daylight, on our normal 25-mile before-dinner loop. Climbing at a moderate pace up the dam at the nearby reservoir. Somebody walking his springer spaniel off the leash. Dog took off, I just saw him coming out of the corner of my eye as he kamikazed across our path, right at our front wheel, and stopped. We were doing about 16-17 mph and couldn't stop. T-boned the dog, and we went right over. Again, I was dinged only slightly -- scrape on my ankle bone, scraped elbow. Wife hit her hip, shoulder, head (helmet, TG), knuckles, ankle bone. She was bleeding like she'd been shot. She was basically fine, just some deepish cuts. And you know, she kept telling me she was OK, over and over, and that she was't afraid, and she wanted to ride home, etc., etc. Man, I love her. She is tough. (She just emailed me asking if I was ready to ride when we get home from work!)

My question: is this just bad luck, or do stokers inherently suffer because they don't see the fall coming? Wife claims she saw the dog and considered shouting, but her instinct was that she'd startle me, or the dog, or both of us, or something. Given this, I'm tempted to think that she has to kind of learn HOW to fall -- I know that sounds ridiculous -- but I remember having these kinds of conversations with my racing mentors back in the day. "Learn to relax and just go with the fall, don't fight it, don't try to brace yourself, etc."

I certainly accept responsibility for both incidents. Captain of the ship and all that. But what are we doing wrong if she keeps getting the worse end of it?

Thanks, yall.