Let’s cut to the crash.
Southbound on Galvin Parkway just South of McDowell cresting the slight rise in the road. Kirk is on the front head down and hammering, new guy Chris on his wheel with Hoss in 3rd. GC in 4th position pulling a train and closing a small gap fast.
Kirk looks up and sees a rock boulder in the road. It’s right in front of him; he yells “rock” and swerves to the left. Chris has no time to react. He hits the boulder head on sheering his fork at the head tube sending him cartwheeling over the bars. Hoss swerves right somehow avoiding the rock, Chris and the shattered bike as it flies through the air.
CG and everyone else splits. Some are forced into the lane of traffic others sneak by on the right riding it out into the dirt.
Chris went over the bars hitting the pavement with his shoulder and his head. He ended up lying on his back mostly in the road. Fortunately he was conscious.
911 was called and the fire truck shows up then the ambulance. Chris seemed lucid at first but seemed to have trouble remembering things as time passed. Chris wasn’t looking good as they loaded him into the ambulance. I really hope he’s ok.
Of course the biggest question was “What @$$hole dragged that boulder into the bike lane?” which was quickly followed by the realization of how much worse it could’ve been. If there had been cars coming up behind us it would’ve gotten ugly. Or if we had been bunched up like usual more people would certainly have hit the deck. It was a terrible crash but we were lucky.
If anyone knows how Chris is doing please let us know. And let us know if there’s anything we can do. He’s new to the valley and doesn’t know a lot of people so a little support would likely be appreciated.
Hill 1 – Kirk
Castle – GC
Hill 3 – Kirk
Hill 4 – RJ
Sprint – Laurel pimped Geoff at the line.
These are all the pics I took. Apologies for the blurry ones, I’m not Ansel Adams.
The offending rock
Where it had been on the road
The bike
Chris
The riders and firefighters
Heard Chris has no broken bones. He might have mild concussion. Sooo grateful he wasn’t more seriously injured. Feel bad that I didn’t see that boulder earlier.
I just found out this site exists and am seeing all this for the first time.
Kirk, not sure if you’ll see this but no worries man! It’s all part of the game. Everything is healing up nicely and it gave me an excuse to get a sick new bike.
See you on the road soon!