Risks of Riding in Group Rides

Triathlon Forum
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I do the vast majority of my bike riding with roadies. I enjoy pack riding and do several rides rides a week with in my area. The riders range from Cat 2 s to beginner Cat 5s and include strong non-racing cyclists. I am one of just a couple triathletes on these rides. However, last month I went on ride as part of my buildup for IM Cozomel - hoping to really capitalize on improvements over the winter and my 5:05 finish at Eaglman on early season form.

August 16th Bike Crash – The Bike Tek Ride in South Jersey
The Accident - I ride out to Bike Tek on a beautiful Sunday morning and there are roughly 25 or 30 people for the group ride. Most of the riders I sort of know but a couple are people I have not seen before. The ride starts on a slow note as there is a discussion of the route due to road work. However, once we get off the main road things start to settle into the normal routine.

Woody and I lead the group for a bit and then move to the back. One thing I notice pretty quickly is one rider with a huge pack on the back of his bike and another who is riding rather erratically right in front of me. I move away from the erratic rider and make a mental note to watch him and the guy with the large pack. Unfortunately, when things start to speed up as we are approaching a local landmark the guy who I had seen riding erratically darts in front of me. More unfortunately, he was riding even worse at this higher speed and he almost immediately touched wheels with the rider in front of him and down he went. He crashed right in front of me and I went right over the handlebars as a result – Nothing I could do. I landed on my right side (head, shoulder, and hips) and literally bounced on the road.

My first thought after the crash was to get off the road so that I did not get run over - I crawled/slithered to the side of the road. I immediately felt like I could not breathe and thought I had the breath knocked out of me, thinking it would pass quickly. I knew my collar was busted and felt pain in my side and hips. Fortunately, the rest of the group stopped and several people moved into help, calling 911 and getting an ambulance, calling my wife, and trying to see if they could do anything else to help. I am grateful for their support. While waiting for the ambulance and still feeling like I can’t breathe the guy who caused the fall comes up to talk – I could not stand to even look at him. I noticed that my helmet is quite busted up and I am glad that was not my head. Unfortunately, I still can’t catch my breath and just sit there feeling like crap.

The EMTs and ambulance arrive and they begin assessing situation. It is hard to talk and the pain has increased. I could not even move to get on the stretcher and they had lift me onto hit – it hurt. I ask to be taken to a hospital near my house. A couple of guys from the ride indicate they will take care of transporting my bike to shop where we started the ride. Once in the ambulance I ask for oxygen which seems to help but I still can’t really talk. The EMTs are quite good natured and even ask before cutting-off my favorite jersey to start assessing me further (my Timberman Jersey). I have a difficult time answering their questions because of the breathing problem. They realize I am not breathing on the right side and turn quite serious (that was scary) and one them tells the driver to go the nearest hospital. The EMTs even call my wife to let her know about the change in hospitals.

We arrive at the ER and a swarm of nurses descend. Their first concern is a concussion and they ask a lot of questions; my head is fine or least the same as pre-crash. The ER doctor arrives and informs me I have a collapsed lung which they will need to treat pretty quickly. My wife arrives and this really helps - moral support is huge at this stage. The ER doctor wants a Cat scan first and off I go for an immediate scan. I have to lay flat for this and it is even more difficult to breathe even with the oxygen mask. Back to the emergency room and the doctor informs me I have 6 broken ribs, a broken clavicle, and of course the collapsed lung. This means a chest tube and a transfer to a Trauma center.

I did not really know what to expect with chest tube. They give me a local and some general pain meds in an IV. Then they essentially take a stake and pound it through the rib cage into your lung. Then they hook a plastic tube to the hollow stake and connect this to a suction pump. Just as I will never forget the crash, I will never forget the chest tube insertion. I felt like the vampire in a horror movie getting attacked with a wooden stake. As one doctor noted you are essentially getting stabbed in the chest.

I am now ready for transport to the trauma center at Cooper University Hospital. I am told that the chest tube will likely be redone at Cooper and that I need to be in a trauma center because of potential complications. At Cooper I think they redid the chest tube (I have no recall of arriving there or what they did) and later in the day they move me to a room. I awake hooked up to a drug machine that stays in place till they remove the chest tube on Tuesday.

The Recovery Process
Once I am in a room I realize that I can’t really move at this juncture and stay in bed till Tuesday morning when they have me get out of the bed and move me to the chair next to the bed for about 30 minutes. My wife stays with me 12 hours a day while in the hospital and has friends look after our kids until some family fly into help with the kids. I can only eat fruit for the first three days and don’t even like the smell of regular food. Several local and near local colleagues come to visit as word gets out about the accident.

The drug machine keeps pumping pain meds in and every 10 minutes allows me to click for an extra shot. I did not realize just how much I hurt until the drug machine is gone on Tuesday evening. However, they start giving me two different oral narcotics, which sort of dulls the pain. By Wednesday evening I can eat regular food again. Finally, by Thursday afternoon I am ready to return home. My wife orders a hospital bed for our home and gets my pain med prescriptions filled. I cannot get in and out of a regular bed and the car ride home is quite unpleasant.

The recovery process begins in earnest after getting home. I was on subscription pain meds for the first 9 days at home and then moved to over the counter stuff (Advil and Tylenol). I have been told no swimming for 3 months, no riding for 2 months, and no running for 10 to 12 weeks. I am getting better each day and grateful that the injuries were not even worse. A follow up visit to the surgeons indicates my lungs are doing great and the chest tube hole is healing nicely. Next week I see the ortho guys again for a discussion of the broken bones. Of course my scheduled Ironman race in November is not doable anymore nor are the other races that I have paid for this year. As I am getting stronger each day and in less pain I can now at least do a light exercise on an elliptical machine (20 to 30 minutes to help the lungs). However, this wears me out and I sit for the rest of the day.

Besides the strong support of my wife and family I have been lucky in that my employer and colleagues have been quite supportive. I hope to return to the office next week for light duty. I shudder to think what would have happened if others on the ride had crashed or if everyone hadn’t stopped and been so helpful. While one erratic rider who is riding beyond their apparent skill level can cause a lot of problems it could have been much worse. I am thankful for all of the support that I have received.

David Reeb
Sept 2, 2009

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Ouch!

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Sorry to hear of your wrecked season, but glad you’re OK in the big picture.
Thanks for taking the time to share the details of your ordeal. These are the things we don’t think about too often.
I saw the aftermath of a fellow who wrecked on a charity ride this year, involving a fast descent, a fieldstone fence, and barbed wire. That scene really pulled things into perspective for me.
I like to think that since I do most of my rides alone on deserted country roads, I am less at risk. But anything can happen. I’ve had multple encounters with deer and bears.
Have you approached any of the race directors for a refund, or at least credit to next years race?
Good luck in your recovery.

Funny thing about your subject line is that it usually reads, “Risks of riding with triathletes.”

4

Hope you have a good recovery. Anytime you ride with unknown riders, things can get dangerous (as you know), which falls into the old bikeforums question of should you let some unknown person draft you while you are out riding.

5

Heal well, sorry this happend…but your title should be “Risks of Riding”…could happen with anyone, on any kind of bike, with any game in mind.

Get better soon.

6

Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your recovery.

BTW, looks like you beat me at Eagleman by about 30 seconds!

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Best wishes for a complete and fast recovery.

8

Wow, that sounds horrible! I hope your recovery goes well.

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Sorry to hear about your fall and glad to hear you are recovering. If any of your tri’s are transferable let me know I might be able to do them for you.

10

Hope you heal up quickly, but I don’t see where the risk of riding with the roadies is here.

The only crash I have ever had was all by myself. I have seen crashes with groups of triathletes and with groups of roadies. In my own personal experience, when I was training as a triathlete, contact with another cyclist would have sent me flying. I’m pretty much a roadie now. Last night however, on the “WednesdayNightWorld’s” ride I had 3 separate contact incidents with zero issue. Even wheels touching as you describe - not a big deal if you don’t tense up and instead let the bike do what it wants to do - separate.

There are risks inherent with cycling - going down is one of them. I have no reason to suspect it happens more often with roadies. I do see more contact, sure, but I think I also see fewer crashes. The real risk of riding with roadies is that you might not have all roadies in the ride.

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triathletes do not ride with people, they ride alone, on lonely highways.

thus there is somewhat less risk, since you not in a pack where someone else can take you out.
=)

12

Wow, best of luck in your recovery.
We have a small (6-8) group of riders/roadies that are not realy fast/competitive but are a great decent bunch of riders when it comes to bike handling. Plus we ride together often (although I only show up a few times a summer) so we know each other’s abilities and are confident in our bike handling skills.

Regardless, we’ve had 2 serious (requiring ambulance rides-and one helicopter ride) crashes this summer. I was not on either ride but the group said they were just freak accidents, so like R10C it can happen at any time with just about anyone. In fact just a fe weeks ago we had a guy get taken out by a stoned skateboarder that stepped out of his driveway right into a paceline!

13

WOW! Good luck with the recovery. That sounds way too painful. And to think I get annoyed at people trying to bike on the river trail I do, when they decide to draft me then their cell phone rings and they reach back in their jersey to answer it. I mean come on seriously?

At least you had the support of other riders, wife, family and friends as well as your employer.

Don’t worry you will be back out there racing again in no time!

14

Dave,
I hope all heals well and you recover well! You and I have spent many miles together on the same roads.

Kevin

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I hope you heal quickly and completely. Thanks for sharing, after Muskoka I will be riding with roadies again. This is a good reminder we need to be aware of what is going on around us. Some accidents however will collect us no matter how careful we are.
Rick

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triathletes do not ride with people, they ride alone, on lonely highways.

thus there is somewhat less risk, since you not in a pack where someone else can take you out.
=)
Jack - not around here. There are tri group rides and there are roadie group rides.

17

Wow, trochar chest tube. I haven’t seen one of those since I put one in over 20 years ago moonlighting in the ER. It’s amazing that they didn’t have someone who could put one in quickly through a small incision and save you the trauma of jamming in the vampire stake. Sounds like it was a smaller hospital and they did the right thing transferring you to a trauma center.

Glad you’re on the mend!

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thats not natural man
a hex on you all

triathletes do not ride with people, they ride alone, on lonely highways.

thus there is somewhat less risk, since you not in a pack where someone else can take you out.
=)
Jack - not around here. There are tri group rides and there are roadie group rides.

19

Hope you heal up quickly, but I don’t see where the risk of riding with the roadies is here.

The only crash I have ever had was all by myself.

There are risks inherent with cycling - going down is one of them. I have no reason to suspect it happens more often with roadies. I do see more contact, sure, but I think I also see fewer crashes. The real risk of riding with roadies is that you might not have all roadies in the ride.

  1. Crashing by yourself is kind of like shooting yourself in the foot. You better have a good explanation. :slight_smile:

  2. As a long time roadie (30 years) I can tell you the group riding situation has gone markedly downhill in the last 10 years or so. Far too many inexperience people showing up that do not know how to ride in a group and will not listen to more experience people that try to give them advice. Also, as mentioned in the OP’s post, the proliferation of excess junk like packs, bags and electronic widgets has increased exponentially allowing riders to fuss with stuff rather than pay attention to what is going on around them.

My personal opinion is that you are most likely to go down when riding in a group ride taken down by one of our own rather than in a collision with a motor vehicle.

20

Sorry to hear of your misfortune and hope for your quick recovery.

The roadies I ride with are VERY selective, or “elitist” if you will, about who can ride with for this very reason. Poor riding skills are magnified when the pace picks up.