The Sunday Catastrophe Ride

So, being a good person, when Flyin Tuna said she wanted to do the KCBC ride on Sunday, I did what I could to find someone willing to ride around with her.  It was heavy lifting but in the end, Dirty Dan, Kenda Janet & Paul, Kevin H and Jeff S joined in.  Then, Saturday evening, Marty S sent me a text with the news there was a ride out of Granville the following morning.  Hmmmmm, drive an hour+ to Gambier or 5 minutes to the River Road Coffee House?  That's an easy one so joined Marty, Dave C., John & Kim Sada, Todd Mullins, Maya, Michael and Lori for a ride to Bladensburg.  But first, we headed south to hook up with Tym and Lisa Tyler.  So....

....there we were, riding along when I hear a metallic "bing", see a piece shoot out from the group, suddenly Tym swerves to the right in front of me, I swerve farther right to avoid and staring at the ditch, see Tym correct and give me a little piece of asphalt which I quickly occupy.  Whew.......

....unfortunately, a bracket or something broke off the seat post of Lisa's bike, rendering it unridable other than to turn around and return home, only a couple of miles away.  Lisa endured the good natured joking about weight and stress on the seat post.  We shoved off and headed toward Flint Ridge Road, climbing that nasty hill.  Note there is extensive paving under way on that road, very welcome.  We get on to Gratiot and climb that nasty hill and I happened to mention to Marty that maybe the steepest climb in the county is right around the corner, Crawmer Road.  I just wanted him to file it away for future reference but he led us eventually to the bottom of it.  Kim claimed a 30% grade but my Garmin topped out at 24%.  Probably 21-22% is about right.  Anyway, a wee bit farther ahead.....

......Dave hit the climb with such force and energy that the equipment could not take it.    I think the chainstay split but the result was the derailleur broke from the frame, along of course with the chain thus, rendering the bike unridable.  What are thee odds of two catastrophic failures in one ride, out of only 11 people?  Hope the warranty takes care of this.  Dave shouldered his bike and began the long walk back to Granville, with the understanding that Marty would return as soon as possible for a pick-up.  Therefore, we took a direct route back but I bugged out on Texas Road, to get in a few extra miles.  Meantime, John Sada hung back with Dave, knocked on a local's door and persuaded the person to drive Dave to Granville.  The Levi Leipheimer Gran Fondo is coming up in a couple of weeks so looks like Dave will have to go with a back-up bike.