The good news:

Batbike and I met for the first time at last Saturday's Tour de Madison (Virginia, not Wisconsin). The day was absolutely gorgeous - sunny, high of about 70F, 10 - 20 mph NW breeze. We had 200+ riders participating. Oh, and by the way, Bat is REALLY REALLY fast! I could not begin to keep up with her!

The bad news:

About 25 miles into the ride, Bat was in a line of riders heading around a curve to a nice, long downhill. From the left side of the road a dog bolted across after them. Bat had nowhere to go but down. She cracked her helmet, has a bump on her head & some minor road rash. Her bike is out of commission with a bent rim & other broken parts. I stopped to see what happened & to make sure she was ok (as I said, she's a LOT faster than I am so I was a bit behind her) and at that point they had called the sag wagon, the sheriff & animal control.

More good news:

I have heard from Bat and she is truly ok. Now she is in the process of mending her bike & with any luck we will meet again next Saturday at the Wilderness Ride in Radford, VA. And again, I won't be able to keep up! As for the dog, animal control took it away.