Killer Bee

Sunday mornings for me tend to mean a ride with the Wheeling Wheelmen. They are a good group of guys. Not excessively fast but very consistent and friendly. I like riding with them despite the fact that I know if I really want to improve my cycling skills I'll have to ride with people who push me, rather than with people I push.

So we started the ride, just sort of cruising along holding what I considered a pretty reasonable 24 pace. We are heading up to a stop light so we are sort of slowing down. I look back to see what traffic behind us is like, since if a car is turning it tends to be a good idea not to block the turn lane. Anyways a few of our group are a ways back stopped on the side of the road. There is a car passing them and a helmet lying in the opposite lane. Of course this is never a good sign. So the few of us at the light rode back to see what had happened.

Apparently one of the group had been riding along and had a bee sting him on his ear. Right on the tragus actually. He told us it was the first time he had ever been stung. So he didn't really know what was going on. When he was stung, he immediately ripped his helmet off, lost control of his bike, and ran into a curb probably doing around 20 mph. He went over the curb and eventually crashed on the grass embankment. Everyone was sort of amazed he managed to go over the curb.. and many were impressed that he did so without injuring himself too severely, especially since he had taken his helmet off first.

We fixed his flat tire but he decided to turn back since he was slightly nervous about having his first bee sting. The ride ended up well, no other incidents to speak of. Good fast pace. I enjoyed it.

Well I'm going to go grab some lunch.

Later