blue_serotta

I'm looking for an answer from someone who's seen something like this. Normally, I consider myself a very strong uphill climber but an absolute chicken going down (it's been getting more intense I've noticed). Yesterday, after about 30 miles or so on a normal club ride I approached a long climb. The leaders are going a bit slow for me so I attack the hill. I stand at the top and and let the lead group I keep dropping on flats and hills pass by me. Past 32mph and I just say it's not worth it. I def. don't have the "edge" anymore. So I'm going down this pretty good grade and some guy is pulled over and I asked the obligatory question and he says "NO!"... I slow down radically and double back (surprised to actually hear someone say that--usually, I hear "yeah, thanks", "I'm ok", "yes", "got everything I need"..you know. I check it all out, he blew his tire and tube out and I'm doing everything to help him, eating up tons of time at the bakery a few miles ahead. No pump. No spare cartridge. No spare tube or "boot" or anything that can stop the tube from exposing itself, even dollar bills! I carry way too much stuff. I give him a tube and a chunk of cardboard. My entire club has now passed. Someone else offers a pump which works better than mine. Finally the stranger and I take off together; I'm worried that his tire is in bad shape. But it's ok. We keep going, cranking, and I begin to see some cyclists in the opp. direction waving, ?to us?, to slow down. Then the worst thing you can imagine becomes visible. A tangle of bikes, cyclists squatting next to a rider, a car and its passengers is ahead. I recognize my club members who are all positioned akimbo along the road ahead and I ask if the cyclist is one of ours? Yes, "it's XXX". I feel horrible, scared, confused and animated, all at once. I feel like I'm talking gibberish to let out nervous tension. My fellow club member is very, very, very obviously in really bad shape. I feel truly helpless. Now, I don't want to tell anyone except another cyclist so as to not vindicate their feelings about my beautiful sport. The ambulance comes, the highway patrol, sheriff and helicopter arrive. I pray for my friend and try to help out for the rest of the day. I'm still praying. I'm leading a ride at the end of this month. I'm trying to go over and over web pages looking for tips to take to the ride and yet not seem too paternal or dictatorial. I've seen the worst thing any cyclist can see, or be involved in. I'm still confused. Please be careful out there.

Laika

I've never seen anything like that and can't imagine how it must have been. I really do hope things go as well as they can. So sorry it happened. Be well.

LordOpie

your post was a jumble. Could you specifically ask the question(s) you have?

If it's a philosophical one, here's the answer... bad things happen to people every second of the day, to good people, to evil people. The only thing you can do is make your life as safe as REASONABLY possible. Obsessing is almost as bad as any bad situation you're trying to avoid.

Go live.


(and yes, I've seen my share of horrible horrible horrible stuff even one situation to four children...)

timmhaan

wait wait, i'm confused. is the story about the guy with the flat tire somehow related to the guy who crashed? or would you have been involved with the crash if you hadn't stopped?

Ebbtide

Hope your friend recovers, my prayers are with him.

Stories like these keep me safe, thanks for sharing.

LordOpie

post sounds sort of like "survivors" guilt?

blue_serotta

Please give me a little slack. It's been less than 12 hours since this bloody event. What I'm asking is how does someone in the forum (with compassion and experience) cope with this and at the same time what do they tell others to do (re safety) before leading a ride? I've been riding seriously for almost 2 years.

Ebbtide

Well, I'm sure you rode home, that was the start. Talking about it helps too.

What happened? Was it an auto crash, loss of control, hit another rider? More info would be helpful in this situation. Finding these things out can bring you to a better understanding of the event and how not to have these things happen to you and others.

Hope this helps,

Ebbtide

billh

My prayers and thoughts are with you and your friend.

Laggard

Crashes? They happen. They're part of cycling. I spent 4 years racing and saw my share of broken collarbones and road rashed faces. You'll never truly be able to ride hard and enjoy it if you're preocupied with thoughts of crashing. You might as well start riding alone. I finally hung up my number simply 'cause I was too close to too many serious pileups and I could not enjoy it anymore.

It helps to have a group of experienced riders. For two years I did a weekly ride with a group of hardcore cat II - cat IV riders and witnessed only two minor accidents.

No matter how safe you try to make a ride, crashes will happen. Eventually someone will overlap a wheel, a chain will break or a dog will run into the group and people will go down. You go home, thank god it was the other guy and put it aside. That's to only way to deal with it.

kf5nd

So you helped him patch his tire up for him, but the patch didn't hold, and he went down? Is that what happened?

FrankH

Don't think so. I read it as he had to leave the peloton to help the guy with the burst tire, thereby avoided the group crash, and probably feels he could have (should have?) been the one laying on the street instead of his friend.

Best wishes to your friend blue_serotta. And you take care, too.

PaperBoy

Is there a clergyman or some sort of counselor you could talk to?

operator

No offense, but you need to start paragraphing long posts. Makes it easier to read.

Dutchy

What happened? Was it a group crash? Was a car involved? or was the car just stopped to aid assistance. As the saying goes "there are two types of cyclist, those that have crashed and those that are going to crash" it's part of the sport. The sense of danger is what makes it fun. I hope your friend makes a speedy recovery.

CHEERS.

Mark

lrzipris

Blue Serotta: If I understand what you're asking, here's my advice: you cope with the tragedy as you would any other crisis, which depends in part on your personality (do you weep or do you grit your teeth stoically?) and the support network in your life that you can lean on--family, friends, whatever community you are part of. How have you coped with such things in your past? Turn to friends? Turn within? Turn to your religion? Discuss safety concerns at a club meeting?

As for leading rides and safety, pay attention to the routes you choose when you lead rides. If a particular stretch of road worries you, perhaps because of a twisting descent, don't take rides on it. especially if there are people on one of my rides who I don't know, I will usually go over some of the basic safety rules appropriate for the category of rider I'm leading. I guess that, with two years of experience, you see a lot of relatively inexperienced cyclists who don't have the skills to ride in a pass line, so remind them not to overlap wheels with the rider in front, pass on the left, call out obstacles like glass or potholes and "car back." Communicate and ride safely. But you can't control how other people ride: I typically ride in the front or the back, to avoid problems caused by other riders.

blue_serotta

Dear fellow cyclists
This crash happened on a stretch of Hi. 1 in CA. I couldn't really go into detail at the time as I was still kind of shook up by it. Oh, and I apologize for the lack of paragraphing. My friends, having gone ahead in full hammer mode were on a twisty, tight set of turns on this busy road. Apparently, possibly, my friend was too close to the center line and so was the car coming in the opposite direction. He suffered several skull fractures, the helmet saved his life. He will be in the hospital for quite a while due to back injuries, as well. I prayed for him non-stop back to my car.
On the way back to the car (I was going fast so I could go back to the scene and retrieve his bike) I thought about if I should bike the next day and really didn't think not too. Instead, I thought I would ask others how they cope with it. Do you grow from it? I guess I didn't weep but instead I wanted to do something, anything. This included sending the word of safety out to others as much as I could.
I really felt strange as I kept thinking that the guy I helped on the road was incredibly grateful to me for stopping, as all the others in my club had passed him by! When the stranger and I reached the scene, I felt that I could have been in the crash, I really could have. Why did it have to be this nice guy? Why don't I have life insurance? When is the ambulance coming?
I want to thank all of you for your support. I needed it, really. And I still won't tell my family, but I might discuss it with someone more spiritually in touch and empathetic. My friend is off the respirator, thank God. He is speaking again but he has a long way to go.
Thank you again.

Rescue35

Ive seen allot of this. Either with bicks, motorcycles, or car clubs. When its someone you know its always harder.

Ever notice how hard firefighters or police officers take it when they loose one of there own? It is not an easy process.

I hope your freind turns out well, but remember; This incident is the exception not the normal everyday of bike riding.

On a side note a couple of people in your club should consider a first aid/ CPR class at a minimum. Maybe even first responder level training. It could mean teh difference between life and death. I carry enough stuff to deal with basic trauma but my head is my most important tool.

Daily Commute

There are a few times when a jumbled, non-paragraphed post is OK, and this is one of them. We should give someone in shock from a serious accident a little space. This writer is obviously in a lot of pain and is venting. Attacking Blue Serotta's writing style is not only inappropriate, it's downright cruel.

Blue Serotta, I hope you and the other riders have a chance to hash out what happened. If you're lucky (a relative term, I know), the tragedy will make your club more careful without killing the fun of the ride. Best wishes to your friend for a speedy recovery.

For the rest of you, if you don't want to read someone else's emotional venting, just move on to the next thread.

SoonerBent

Know that I am praying for recovery and peace for you and your friend.

SS

Roughstuff

Blue Serotta: You racers are in a league of your own! Not only are ya pushing the limits of bicycles as far as ya can, thus making them safer for all of us who take new technologies for granted, you guys are out there doing it on roads with much larger vehicles, all kinds of obstacles and unforeseen hiccups like potholes or sand, and you are doing it every day. Of COURSE that means untimely accidents will occur...as Dale Earnhardt.

Your style of riding is entirely different from mine...touring...though I share your reluctance to cut loose down hills.

Very best of luck with your friend. Any feeling of 'guilt' you maye have are better channeled into positive actions to help him and your fellow riders.

roughstuff

lotek 

Blue-Serotta (big boy blue?)

Last year, early spring I was on a ride with LBS, we came upon an accident
where 2 cyclists were hit by a car, it was fatal for one of the cylisists,
and not a pretty site. The EMS crew and police were all there and there
was nothing for us to do except to continue our ride (after trying to ascertain
if this was someone we knew).
Random chance. I can't go around thinking that this is karma, fate etc.
There is no rhyme or reason. Bad things happen to good people for no
apparent reason. If you want to believe in luck, consider it your
good luck that you stopped to assist another cyclist and were not involved
in the accident.
The only thing we can do is continue to do what we do and know
that bad things sometimes happen. It isn't personal.

I hope your friend is doing well, and you also.

Marty

timmhaan

i can't tell you how much i disagree with this. sorry, i know you're having a rough time, but your family is your support line. hiding something as tramatic as this is a huge mistake IMO. don't let too much time go by without telling them. they can help you probably more than you realize.

LordOpie

She probably realizes deep down that if she tells her family that they'll do whatever they can to stop her from riding.

Right or wrong, my family back in Florida has zero clue the kind of 'responsible' risks I take every time I ride. They'd worry and ask me not to ride.

Still, I agree, if Blue's having a hard time, shutting down is the worst possible thing to do.

blue_serotta

This was a faster-paced club ride. No racers.


This is a tough point. I commute on my bike and ride a lot on the weekends. I am grappling with telling my family just yet. I think I need to really express to them how seriously I take safety. I don't bomb down hills or hug the left 1/3 of the lane, I don't ride side-by-side down roads (even though I wish I could), and I don't try to keep up with maniacs. Crashes happen, bad ones, I'll tell them. I stop to help others, take reality checks, avoid craziness on crazy roads and do not try to hang with people who tip the law of averages in the wrong direction. I always have id, cell phone, my health care info, $$, lights and reflective stuff.
I guess I'll tell them at some point, but not in a way that will scare the hell out of them, they'll only get the idea we're all skirting death out there instead of enjoying the camaraderie, exhilaration and beauty of it all. I want to do this sport into my 70's.
Also, don't worry, I'm not shutting down. If I was, I wouldn't be writing any of this. I'm reaching out to my fellow cyclists here to assist me in planning how to incorporate all of this. I reach out elsewhere and then when I'm more sanguine and less shook up, I'll be able to tell them. Hmm, maybe not my mom!
Thanks again for all of the support and tolerance.