Caused an accident this weekend on a club ride!!!

[KSH]

And then he starts blaming me, and that just makes me feel even worse In about few minutes he got up and we went to get bagels, after that he was fine, he even talked to me. People who saw what happened told me its not my fault, but i sort of feel like it is, i should have stopped. But then he should have not confused me and start turning left... Well i guess accidents like that are always possible on the club ride. We finished the ride and it was great, i still feel good about just feel bad for the poor man.

Well, thank goodness he was OK!

And... he is 70... so yea... he's grumpy.

Happy to hear you were both fine and well.

[Jo-n-NY]

I am so sorry to hear about your crash on your ride. But, no one got hurt thank goodness and it sounds like even the bikes were ok.

That is the one thing that scares me about riding with a club or group of riders. To me it also did not sound like it was your fault. It was a confusing situation.

I am sure future rides will be better. It is hard to anticipate what other riders will do.

~ JoAnn

[susanm8048]

Thanks KSH.

It was probably a combination of inexperienced riders both doing the wrong thing. I didn't even realize that she was behind me.

It really taught me that you have to be obsessively predictable, even when you don't think anyone is around.

I have done a lot of solo riding or with a few others, but never in a bunch. I suppose it is a skill and like any other you have to concentrate and practise and hope for the best until you get good at it.

I must confess, I haven't done any group riding since.

[FreshNewbie]

Susan,

In every article i read so far it says that if a person is overlapping your rear wheel its their fault, well not in my case though. But if she was riding so close to you and was overlapping your wheel she should have been more careful.
It's true that riding in group is dangerous at times, but unfortunatelly that's how we learn. And as for me, it was a great lesson

Thanks everyone for replies!

[Nanci]

Maybe people would be more careful about overlapping wheels if they all knew THEY were going to be the one to fall!

Nanci

[Geonz]

SHe might *not* have been overlapping until that deviation from the line (especially if going for the bottle meant slowing down a tad). OUr guys always tell us "if you're the one behind, you're the one going to go down - so ride accordingly!"

I have brought the whole line down behind me, including pretty serious injuries (nothing requiring surgery, but people not back on their bikes for a month or two... some of them foregoing group rides/ pacelines for a *long* time). I *had* been happily cruising pretty much by myself, but then we regrouped.
LIttle bit after we started, somehow I was fourth in the group, and we weren't going very fast... and the light came off of the bike in front of me. It wasn't even actually near me... but objects in flight caused me to flick that brake with my left hand. Metal on metal, curses and scrapes, and about fifteen bikes all over the road. It looked like a battlefield scene from a movie... interestingly, not a single car went by, though some turned at the corner before us so they didn't have to.
This was about six years ago... I've had a couple of sort of close calls since (nudged wheels once, successfully dodged water bottle another time - yea, people drop 'em!) but mainly I consider pacelines an act of extreme intimacy (y'all have seen my drafting story, you know that's true :-)) and don't do it with strangers (well, unless the chemistry is *just* right!) Experience really does go a long way.
The *next* summer, when I was Saturday level 1 ride leader, two people told me on different occasions that they were getting back in to group riding but were nervous... that they'd been in a bad crash the summer before... my crash.