I heard that a rider got hit by a car climbing “the wall” at solvang last weekend…
Anybody have info regarding what happened or who the rider was?
bump.
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I was out there and did not hear about that, but there was a rider that was run over by a boat trailer. The details are a bit sketchy, but from what my wife heard in town a vehicle pulling a boat trailer ran over a cyclist that went down just as they passed. We heard that it was not life threatening, but who knows the real story I guess. This is just what we heard. I did however hear sirens in town as I finished about 2:30pm.
I just did a google search and came up with the following:
In Brief
… BUELLTON A 68-year-old bicyclist from Merced County died of his injuries when he
… in Saturday’s Solvang Century long-distance ride, authorities said. …
news.newspress.com/topsports/031805inbriefs.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
Unfortunately, you can’t read the article without a paid subscription - even the cached version.
I’m sad to hear about this fellow’s demise. However, at the risk of sounding crass, if you’re going to go (and, let’s face it, we’re all going to go), that’s not a bad way to do it: riding a beautiful century ride at 68 years of age.
It really was a gorgeous ride. It was so green from all the rain that it looked like Vermont. The weather was perfect for riding – arm warmers and shorts all day (except for the brief spell when the sun came out while I was climbing ‘the wall’).
Where was the ‘wall?’ I finished and rode the whole course, but I didn’t see that.
That’s too bad if it did happen.
The only thing i saw that was dangerous was the “Santiago Bike Club” riding in a “paceline” with 5-6 bike-lengths between riders snaking down the road following their tandemers until they found a hill and amlost stopped and sent about 24 riders into a starburst formation to avoid them. That caused at least one accident that i know of. They sucked. The ride was great once i dropped the Santiago idiots. Beautiful day to haul ass. Too bad for the accidents, but what a wonderful way to go.
Who are those Santiago clowns?
This is what I heard(this is 4th hand info… so, it may not be totally accurate),
A rider was leaving the last sag stop and starting the “Wall” climb(about mile 90)… he was bonking and was having a hard time climbing and holding a straight-line. He was drifting over to the centerline and couldn’t pedal the bike anymore… he tipped over and was clipped in with his bike between his legs… then, a car(I don’t know if it was passing or oncoming) ran him over. Happened later in the day…(maybe about 2 pm)
I also heard of a rider who was airlifted out of the switch-back decent…he crashed and had many severe injuries…(switchbacks at about mile 95ish)
I think “wall” is a bit of an overstatement. It was the hill right after the last SAG stop. I think it was about a 7-10% grade, but it was pretty short. I thought the 12 mile or so hill before the last SAG was much more painful. Neither would have been that big a deal in the first half of the ride. I did see a guy traversing both lanes of traffic on one of the climbs like a beginner skier, but he was nowhere near 68 years old. I thought it was pretty stupid, though.
I often worry that I’ll hit the sand/gravel on the uncurbed roadside and fall over into traffic.
I spoke with someone that works the event and found out the person that was killed was one of the 50 mile riders that fell into traffic going up a hill on the way back to Solvang. It is a real problem there because of all the traffic going into the city. There is now talk to change it so the 50 mile riders come back another way from now on. The other rider that was air lifted hit a pot hole and went down.
Rod
Wow, that explains where it was…
Holy crap, I was going down that hill(westbound side…heading back to the campground) around the time that it happened… I remember seeing the backed up traffic and a handful of riders unclipped and helping someone on the other side of the road… The ambulance was flying pass me down the center-divider about 10 minutes after that…
Thats really sad!!!
last year during ragbrai where I was stopped with about 3000-4000 other riders at the top of a hill. Apparently a rider had crossed over the center line on this very steep 50mph downhill descent and dropped his wheel in to the gap between the two lanes.
