O Captain My Captain

This morning we are headed to Pendleton to ride our tandem in the Spring Jubilee Ride. We'll probably do 30-35 leisurely paced miles. We haven't been riding much lately, because the weather and our busy schedule haven't allowed. So I'm looking forward to being on the bike today.


This morning as I was waking I thought about the Governor's Ride last fall (see picture below) and how close we came to disaster. Thankfully I ride with an excellent Captain (my "backseat" is called the Stoker). Alan did a FABULOUS job saving us from serious injury.


We had ridden about 40-45 miles and stopped at the last rest stop. The traffic had gotten thick on the roads and we were headed into Columbia so it was only going to get worse. We decided to head out in the Governor's group to take advantage of the State Troopers who were riding front and rear of his group, slowing traffic on this four lane road. Before long we are zooming along, over 20mph, in a double paceline with about 60 bikes, all in the right-hand lane. We are near the front, only 6-8 bikes ahead of us in our left/inside line. The Guv is at the head of the right/outside line. We are FLYING along.


Suddenly Alan turns the bike left, into the left-hand driving lane. At the same time I am looking right because bikes and bodies are sliding down the pavement beside me, in between the two lines of bikes. Slowing, stopping, bikes peeling left and right to avoid the accident. My heart is racing. Alan's is too, I notice once we stop. But he stayed calm and cool. He had seen it coming. Just ahead of him, maybe two bikes, he had seen someone clip (touch) the back wheel of a the bike in front. I think there was a manhole cover or something in the road someone was trying to avoid, slowed and swerved and the guy behind him didn't.


No matter the details of their wreck, the amazing thing to me is that WE didn't wreck. In a split second Alan made a great decision. If we had gotten caught up in the wreck and laid our tandem down in the road, we could have been SERIOUSLY injured and taken out many riders behind us. I am so thankful we were in the line with room to our left. If we had been in the other line, we would have had no where to go (there was a curb). And I'm thankful my captain is such a dependable, trustworthy and excellent captain.