Claire Chiamulera, Blake Altman, and John Choate joined me on a brisk fall morning to enjoy (?) a loop from the Bensville IHRT access path through Riverside and back via Rosehill Road. We cranked out a solid A+ pace (18.4) and happened upon Jon Agazzi's Nifty Fifty group near the Nanjemoy Store in Riverside. Spirits were high as we shared some conversation with Jon's group and headed back out to finish our ride. Metrics: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/972770
Now for the bad news:
After we crested Rosehill, we reformed our paceline and proceeded towards Rt. 225. As Murphy would have it, the shoulder disappeared from under Claire's tires and she gracefully laid the bike down in a grassy ditch. She had a lot of pain along her left side, particularly in her left hand. After a quick medical assesment by our crack staff, and being that John's house was fairly close by, he graciously rode ahead to get his truck while Blake and I tried to keep the mood light. John quickly returned with the SAG wagon and returned Claire to civilation, where she confirmed what we feared: She suffered a broken bone in her left hand and some abrusions and swelling on her left hip and elbow. Looks like Claire has 6-8 weeks of convalescing ahead of her. Get well soon, my friend.
And we also had a mechanical along the way:
John suffered a broken front spoke fairly early in the ride, throwing his wheel slightly out-of-true. Fortunately, the club's broken-spoke expert was along on the ride. She (guess who) performed the necessary stress/tension analysis and deemed John's bike fit to continue. John offered a short prayer to the Bianchi gods and we proceeded. Naturally, the prayers and self-healing nature of the Bianchi resulted in, by ride's end, an in-true front wheel...so we're told.
Sympathies to Claire :(
Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.545735792109088.141071.147336598615678&type=1&l=5c0ada3d40
