April 29th Derby

Overall, it was a fun night. We had a crash early on at the intersection of Woodchoppertown Rd. Jerry V. went down. I didn't see it, but came back after it was safe to turn around and he was moving, coherant and no bleeding, so it appeared that he will be hopefully back in action in a few weeks. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

After things were sorted out, and a few guys stayed for the ambulance, we continued the ride with about 10-12 riders. Ryan was being on good behavior, so it stayed together for the whole night. No major attacks without Dean and no 40 mile an hr Limekiln drag racing.

Once we hit Mine, the pace picked up and we came through the final turn and one of the K-town guys got up front and started to pull, so everyone started to jockey for postion and with about 400 meters to go, the big guy on the C-dale from K-town attacked hard and it caused a small split. Myself, Doug, Ryan, Rasta and two k-towns and one of two others(not sure of the names) all started to group up and fight for a spot. I attacked on the left side when I thought the timing was right and looked over to my right and saw Doug powering up the right side and launching a big move. Then I saw Ryan come around Doug to take the lead and figured Ryan doesn't count in the placing, so I tried to keep going, but they were moving way too fast. We had enough gap on the rest of the field, so I cruised across, third across, less Ryan, so I was second and Doug took the win. Rasta may have been third, but I'm not sure.

Doug put one serious move in and took the win with ease. He was flying and nobody was catching him tonight. Great job Doug, great job to the rest. See you next week.

We wish Jerry a speedy recovery
god bless and our prayers are with him
Hopefully he can get back on the bike in a few weeks.

I was on Nick's wheel and on Jerry's left side we were both holding the wheel in front of us and rode side by side down the slight downhill near woodchooper, but somehow we slightly touched bars, and it was like a delay reaction after a second or two then I saw him fall, I think we just got too close, so the only thing bad about this sport happened with his fall.

Alan

Definitely a fun night with the exception of the crash, hopefully Jerry’s just has some bruises and road rash. Either way here’s to a quick recovery.

Some how I managed to stay out of the wind right up to the sprint, Jim did most of the work on the front once we hit Mine Rd. Keith (Weaver's dude on the Giant) went really early, I think before we even started the down hill, it's good to see a few more guys hanging in to the end. I just kind of hung out until the second K-Town guy went on the right sat on his wheel, for a couple seconds I thought I was going to get boxed in. But as we got moving things opened up an he did a nice lead-out for me.

I looked back to my left and it looked like I had a good gap on everybody but then Ryan blasted by me on the right with like 50 meters to go.

-Doug

jerry has a broken scapula (shoulder) and possible roter damage in his shoulder. very similar to what i did at rodale a few years ago. it is very painful just to sit up for a while.

good luck jerry with a speedie recovery.

jim


ps: you are all very welcome for the pull from the bottom of oley turnpike road and most of the way on mine. after jerry's crash i wasn't interested in sprinting so i thought i'd do all the work at the end.

I think it is time that we make "helmets" a must on the Tuesday night ride. I will mention something to DeWald and hopefully everyone else can follow. After watching Jerry go down, and Dean bang his head at the Tour de Brew last September, I really don't want to be scrapping someone off the road.

Not too mention, I'm really not that inteligent to begin with, so the thought of me hitting my head and becoming dumber is really not in my future.

just for the record........ HELMETS ARE MANDATORY on tuesday nights. you can tell because you see me wearing one.

pass it on to Ryan.

thanks,
jim