I missed the shop group ride this morning. Did you do it, 7rider? I came to the conclusion that I need a lifestyle change. I'm not getting enough sleep during the week so I tend to play catch-up on the weekend and sometimes I miss the early group rides. That's an entirely different post/thread.
I left my home later in the morning and went into the park. I had a feeling that I would be seeing a few of the group cyclists based on my timing. I was cycling by myself when I came to a dangerous curve in the road. I always, always slow down there. And because the curve is on a fairly steep descent, you are most likely going very fast. I saw a woman cyclist on the other side of the road where the curve begins - motioning me to slow down. I slowed and asked her what was going on and she told me that there was an accident. My first thought was that it was one of the shop riders. I came around the curve and saw a few cyclists near the guardrail and a few cars that had stopped. I asked one of the cyclists what had happened. He said that he was coming up the hill when he saw a cyclist coming down around the curve. I'm assuming that he was going too fast, couldn't manage the curve and he missed it. He flew over the guardrail. The roads were also slick because it had rained a lot last night. It was a horrible scene. There were 2 people kneeling down with him telling him to hang in there - that the ambulance was on its way. It had just happened - about 2 minutes before I got there. He was drifting in and out of consciousness. I am assuming that at some point, he was alert because they knew his name (he had been cycling alone so no one at the scene knew him). They were patting him saying, "Max...stay with us, Max. The ambulance is coming." A few of the shop riders came down the hill and stopped and asked if he was okay. When they heard that he was unconscious, they all muttered (like me), "Oh sh*t". We all left because there was nothing that we could do and the very narrow road was getting blocked by us and the vehicles that were stopping. As I got to the bottom of the hill, the fire truck and ambulance were headed up. I thought about that guy during my entire ride and I still can't stop thinking about him. I hope that he is okay.
