Crash!

I did the Chain Reaction Wednesday night group ride tonight, which has become a staple for me. Its good to do some group rides to push yourself a little, break up the boredom and practice group ride skills.

We did the Grand View loop tonight, which is the first time I've done this route with this group. Turnout was impressive with 55 total riders. In the "fun" group (the group that does 18-20 mph) we had about 30 riders or so. For the route, we go north on Meade, then west on Rock Road all the way out to Stephenville, south on 76 to work our way down to Grand View. On Grand View is the bigger hill on the ride. Not long, not terribly steep, but it does get the blood flowing when everyone is sprinting up it. From there, its Grand View to Greenwood to Quarry to Mayflower to Capitol to get back in. I think from the Chain Reaction shop its about 35 miles in total. Compared to the other ride this group does (the Swamp Ride), I think this one has a few more hills.

So we are headed down Capitol coming up on Meade getting ready to turn right and head back to the shop. We are riding in two lines, and I'm up front in the first row. Becky and I had even had a conversation earlier about how its safer to be up front on these things. So we are coming up to the intersection and to the left I see a rider on a road bike heading south on Meade. He's going at a good clip, probably about 22 mph as he is headed down the hill from where Meade passes over 41. I shout "Rider Left, stopping". I'm in the right hand line, but my partner up front, in the left hand line either didn't see the other rider or didn't hear me. So as I am clipping out and stopping, he turns right into me.

Boom!

We both go down.

Fortunately, neither of us were hurt. And no one else went down either. My foot was tangled up in his spokes and Niki had to lift up his bike and rotate it around to get me out. I have a sore elbow and I'm sure he has sme bumps and bruises too, but no road rash. Mostly I think it was pride that was hurt. On my bike I have a scratch on the pedal and lost a bar end. I think he'll need a new spoke, but we were both able to ride home.

I haven't went down in a long time, like 10 years. You never want to go down, but if you have to, its sure better to go down when you are almost stopped rather than at 30 mph. The most important thing is that no one was seriously hurt. No one was really hurt at all. Its good that neither bike was damaged or seemingly even scratched at all either--but even if so, bikes can be fixed, people not so much.

If you ride enough, at some point you are going to go down. While I wouldn't describe hitting the concrete tonight as gentle, I also realize that both of us are very lucky that its just a couple bumps. We both rode away, which is the best you can hope for.