Sort-of-Flying Wheels
I should write a more detailed post about this… as it was quite and exciting ride… with some ups (meeting new people) and downs (witnessing a crash, and watching a nice person get carried off on a stretcher in an ambulance). The moral of the story is: ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET…
The headline goes something like this:
I planned to meet a friend to ride some portion of the Flying Wheels Century. They wanted to ride slow, and not the whole course, so I planned to ride 25 miles to and from the start/finish line. So if we rode 70 miles, I’d be doing 120; if we rode 40 miles, I’d still be doing 90miles. As we planned to ride slow, I decided to ride my Shogun (fixie). My friend brought another friend along… hence the meeting new people part. We set of for a nice mellow ride.
About 5 miles into the ride, badness happened. My new friend, had some kind of a technical/bike malfunction… Mind you, this was her brand new bike. I didn’t see exactly what happend as I was in the lead. But I heard and felt the following happen behind me: I heard what sounded like a bike wobbling out of control. I heard a “What the #$%^!?”. And finally, to quote my favorite band TAD “Then I heard the most horrible sound I ever heard in my life!”. And I felt a wave of energy hit me from behind. I knew something very bad had happened behind me. I stopped my bike and turned around to see my new friend sprawled out on the pavement with her bike on top of her.
It was a very scary scene. The good news is, that she was alert, and claiming to be “just fine”. But we performed first aid on her, and called 911 immediately. We kept her still, redirected traffic around her, did a quick neurological exam (how many fingers am I holding up, follow my finger, can you wiggle your toes, squeeze my finger, etc.) and she passed. But we were all worried as it was quite a hard fall. The paramedics arrived and ultimately decided that not only would they be taking her to the hospital, but that she’d be wearing a neck brace and be strapped to a back board. After helping get my new friend safely into the ambulance, and watching my other friend ride off with her (they after all actually knew each other)… I was left on my own on the side of the road to get home on my own.
After watching the scene unfold… I decided I didn’t really want to ride another 70-100 miles… so I turned around to head home… I figured I’d head around the lake for a 70 mile ride total.
I ended up riding along until I caught up to another serious cyclist. After chasing her down up a nice long hill, I chatted her up a little to discover she is a Semi-pro racer for one of our local teams. We talked about the regional stage races, and about fitness in general, as we rode around the rest of the lake. It turns out she lives in my neighborhood and was heading the same direction as me.
It was a beautiful day for a ride, which made the whole experience that much more difficult to digest. I guess it highlighted the fragility and randomness of it all.
When I got home I got a call from my friend, and was happy to learn that my new friend was doing fine, and after a CAT scan, and a couple hours of observation, they decided to release her to go home to recuperate. I’m sure she’ll be sore for several days, but hopefully she’ll be back on her bike soon enough.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 06/14/2008
- Total Time: 4:00:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 140
- Max Heart rate: 168
- Distance: 74 miles
- Average Speed: 18.5 mph
- Max Speed: 25 mph
Filed under: Cycle |
Digg! this story.
|
Leave a Comment
2 Comments: :
Sort-of-Flying Wheels
June 17th, 2008 1:25 am
Bill Anders says:
Definitely - wear the helmet!
Good way to make the best of the situation. I think any of us would have understood if you turned back and headed to be with the family.
June 17th, 2008 6:20 am
Karl McCracken says:
Does “chatted her up” mean the same thing in the US as it does over here?!
And here’s another article on why / why not wear a helmet: Dispelling the Myth / Dave Moulton’s Bike Blog.