Three Riders Down and One Dog Bite - What a Ride!

Our cycling group met at our regular spot this morning for a nice 45 mile ride.  We rode out at 7:30am.  About halfway through our rides, we reached a major country T intersection (major meaning from one lightly traveled road to another slightly more lightly traveled road) and decided to go right instead of left, skipping a ride to a small town called Garrison.  The Garrison gods must have been upset, because moments later I was headed towards the pavement.

I still don't know exactly happened.  There was a small divot/groove in the road, probably no more than 3 feet long.  It was at about a 45 degree angle.  My front tire hit the divot and grabbed into it.  I fell to my right... directly into another rider.  He fell to his left, and there we were on the road.  A third rider (who had a rider to his left and didn't really have anywhere to go) decided to join us by riding over my rear tire and back derailleur... and then fell.

We're all okay, although we all rode away with scrapes and bruises.  I'm going to have a LARGE bruise on my right hip, as well as cuts/scrapes on my right elbow, shoulder and knee.  The other riders were also okay, but definitely sore from scrapes and road rash. 

My rear derailleur hanger ended up getting bent pretty bad when the third rider rode over my wheel.  Thankfully one of our riders is a retired bike mechanic (used to own his own shop in Utah).  He was able to remove the hanger and get it back close to true.  He put it back on the bike and carefully bent it the rest of the way.  While he was working on my bike, the rider I knocked down investigated his front brakes and noticed some problems there and adjusted them so they'd work for the ride in.  He'll have to fine tune the brakes later, but all bikes were now rideable, so off we went.

No more than 3 miles down the rode, a dog charged out inquisitively (NOT viciously) into the road and bit a rider (the mechanic I mentioned) on the right ankle.  He stopped to check out how bad it was.  There was no blood, but it did look like the dog broke the skin.  The owners weren't around, so we took a picture of the mailbox for the address just in case.  He think's he'll be fine but is going to watch it just in case.  Probably should file a county policy report, too!

What a crazy ride.  We did our 45 miles, but what a LONG 45 they were!!  I'm off to let the ibuprofen kick in and enjoy some lunch.  Have a SAFE weekend, everyone, and keep yourselves and your bikes upright!

-Joel