Very sad story - be careful out there

[jobob]

Sun. Feb. 20, 2005
Cyclist killed on rain-slicked road
By Crystal Carreon
Mercury News

A 53-year-old Milpitas woman was killed Saturday after losing control
of her bike while riding in the eastern foothills of San Jose, the
California Highway Patrol reported.

Darlene Schaub was traveling down a rain-slicked slope on Quimby
Road, east of Borden Drive, when she was thrown from her bicycle and
slid under a guard rail; her chest struck the rail's support post,
said CHP officer Steve Perea.

Schaub had lost sight of the three cyclists she was with, including
her husband William, when the accident occurred, Perea said. She was
wearing a helmet.

Officers were called to the scene at 12:30 p.m. and transported
Schaub to Regional Medical Center, where she was declared dead about
an hour later.

An autopsy is scheduled to be performed today.

Kelly Schaub, 20, said her mother biked every weekend, tackling the
foothills and other trails in the South Bay.

Her daughter said Schaub was enjoying time away from the Silicon
Valley workforce, where she had spent more than a decade in human
resources for Novell and VPNet before deciding three years ago to
spend more time at home.

Quimby is a very steep road that joins up with Mt. Hamilton Drive. I've never done it, and I can't say I'm all that eager to try it.

Ow, descending something that steep when it's wet ... Kim, keep being a ninny, and V. love, you be careful out there (darn good thing I heard about this after you posted about your descent down Diablo today).

Anyone here know this woman? :(

- jobob worrywart.

[Veronica]

How sad. :( And I hate to say it, but sometimes we go too fast to try to stay up with someone else. It just isn't worth it.

Jo I did average less than the speed limit on the descent today.

V.

[slinkedog]

Don't know her, but Blaine has ridden that road many times. It's very nasty. I'm so, so sorry to hear about this.

[jobob]

Jo I did average less than the speed limit on the descent today. Good girl (pats V. on head).

- jo "mother hen" bob

[BikeMomma]

Wow, how terribly sad.... everyone, please be careful! :(
Thanks for sharing, Jo.

[aka_kim]

Very sad.

Now I'll share my Joseba Beloki impersonation and why I'm now more of a ninny on wet descents than ever. Several weeks ago I was descending Diablo after rains the previous day and night. On the very steep section at Burma Road (when you're climbing from North Gate it's about 2 miles in) as I rounded one of the bends an SUV appeared in my lane, passing cyclists coming up. My hands were stiff with cold, I grabbed the brakes too hard, the pavement was wet, I was going too fast for the conditions, and I did big scary fish tails before somehow regaining control of the bike and making it by the SUV. I've had "unexpected" encounters with cars several times on Diablo, but losing control of my bike while in a crash avoidance situation was definitely the scariest. So, I'll be a ninny and try to only ride in conditions appropriate to my abilities.

[SadieKate]

Aka_Kim, I'm with you (Go Team Ninny!). The very first race I ever did (one of only 2 :p ) was on Labor Day weekend which here means lots of squished tomaters on the road. It was a team tri and the bike leg was last. Of course, it rained only for the bike leg and I had the 1st set of bald tread Avocet tires probably in the entire county (this was a looong time ago). The bike shop owners who sold me the tires and were sponsoring the race looked at the tires, looked at me and said "let us know how they perform in the rain!." Well, I didn't go down but I had the same fish tail issues in the corners on absolutely flat road. Fortunately, it was only the rear sliding which meant I could keep the momentum going forward as long as I didn't panic. I don't feel any need to push the envelope where speed and pavement are both present.