Ride Leader: Blake Altman and Karen Fitzgerald
Date August 6, 2014
Ride Name: Casey Jones
Ride Distance: 27 miles
Average Speed of the Ride: 20.7ish
Ride Class: AA
Mechanical Issues: None
Mishaps: 1 Crash
Weather: Sunny, warm
Guest Riders: Clayton Douglas
Member Riders: Karen Fitzgerald, Zach Peacock, Chuck Coe, Brad Francisco, John Choate, Paul Bales, Alan Canfield, John Agazzi, Jean Wright, Michael Blaine, Chris ?
Ride Report:
We had to use the alternate (number 2) route for the ride since Route 6 still had milled pavement. Karen led the slower AA’s while I was supposed to lead the front group.
Things started pretty normally, I led-out and was in front when we crossed 301 on Stagecoach road. I waited for all the AA riders to cross the highway and we were still together once everyone got across.
At some point between 301 and Chapel Point road Brad got in front. He got some extra time at Route 6 as the following group was held up by traffic. And the chase was on. We could keep Brad in sight and occasionally appeared to be pulling him in but he was on fire and just when we seemed to be getting closer he would start to pull away again. By the time we reached Route 225 the chase group had 6 members and we still couldn’t pull Brad back in despite our best efforts. However, we continued to try.
We were on Rose Hill road and still chasing Brad when disaster struck. I heard the sound of someone behind in the pace line go down. It was Clayton and he had gone down pretty hard. I think the pace line had slowed just a bit and the reverse slinky effect caused Clayton to hit the wheel of the rider in front of him and crash. The only good news was that no one else went down and that Clayton’s bike had only minor scrapes on the handle bar tape and seat.
Clayton was not as lucky as his bike. He had some pretty painful looking road rash, he took a pretty good shot to the shoulder, and he had hit his helmet hard enough to dent it. We cleaned Clayton’s road rash as best we could while Michael (who lives nearby) rode home to get his jeep. We got Clayton in the jeep and then continued back to the start behind the B group in a pretty dejected state. I had a 20.7 average prior to the crash but that dropped to 19.6 by the time we made it back to the start.
By the time we had gotten back, Clayton had left. I called him that night and he said he was okay but that he was going to get checked-out at the hospital later. I called him back Thursday and Friday and left voice mails, but I haven’t heard back. I hope he is okay!
I want to thank Michael and everyone else in the chase group for helping with the situation. Also, I don’t want this unfortunate event to detract too much from Brad’s fantastic ride; he really put in an impressive effort!
Lastly, I hope Clayton will join us again despite the very unfortunate outcome on this ride.
