Rider down

To know me is to know this: when I am acting all serious or uptight, that means things are normal and I may even be bored. When I am laughing hysterically, those are the most serious situations to me.

So Carol and I were JRA after just finishing 2 pre-ride loops on Tidewater Mountain Bike Challenge course before the race tomorrow. We had ridden the technical course without incident and had just finished a conversation with Penny about how low speed spills can sometimes be the most dangerous.

So as Carol would say, I just had to be competitive, so I started popping wheelies on the way back to the car. There was the implied invitation for Carol to compete, so she did, and on the third try, her Specialized slung her



backwards onto the chunky gravel. She hit with the pumped thud of a dropped crowd surfer. She froze spread eagle in classic wind-knocked-out-of-you fashion, though for those 20 seconds, it was not clear to me if that's what was wrong since the symptons are similar to punctured lung. I tended to her with one hand and grabbed for my phone with the other as she sought desperately for oxygen.

The phone wasn't in my pocket but my camera was, so as she came to, I said "stay still" and laughed my head off as I snapped shots. Turns out the force ripped her foot right out of clippped-in shoe as if she'd been raptured up right there from the woods in Croaker, VA. I am glad she's ok, and I think she has known me long enough to not misinterpret my laughter during the whole drive home!