PAlt

Thanks to jppe for the kind words, I think his riding on a wounded wheel is pretty impressive on it's own! I heard the commotion just in front of me that took him down, nothing makes a sound like carbon fiber breaking. The dominoes flowed back toward where I was in the pack, and I was able to bunny hop the median and scoot around the chaos. Word we heard floating about was a broken stem on someone's bike, know it took down numerous riders. Had a close call of my own when about 30mi in, riding in the middle of a group, on a slight climb, rider in front and to my right (I was in the "slot" between 2 riders) stood to get a little power to crest the hill, must have either dropped or broken a chain, but did his "bicycle repair man" imitation, and tipped to his left into the rider directly ahead of me. I managed to scoot around and avoid disaster.
I was disappointed in my time, as I hoped to finish "all in" in under 7 hours, though my saddle time was well under that. Learned a few more lessons as to better improve my times for this and other events. All told, it was another great ride, almost perfect weather, and a safe result for both of us. The best reward is the sense of accomplishment I feel from simply being able to still participate in events like this .