[fabsroman]

Skeeter,

Wrecks happen in racing all the time. Nobody even knew this guy had a heart attack at the time he went down. He touched the wheel of the guy in front of him, which almost always results in a crash, and I narrowly avoided it by hitting the brakes hard and moving to my right. I have enough experience with bike wrecks during races to know that when I hear the sound of rubber rubbing against rubber (i.e., tires), things are not good. Anyway, the paramedics were on the scene and the lap was less than one mile, so we were back there in about 2 minutes or less and the paramedics were approaching him with a board. At that point, I though he had hit his head or something and been paralyzed or suffered a concussion. A fellow racer that I knew 18 years ago was paralyzed in a bike race. Luckily, my category had already raced and I had left when it happened, so that I didn't have to see it. I think I would have been heart broken. Anyway, I didn't really know it was all that serious until I was approached by a couple of LEO's after the race to complete some accident statement paperwork, and when I saw this guy's teammates crying.

A fund was later set up to erect a Keith Mitchell memorial bench in Arlington, VA, the venue for the race, and I donated $100 to it. The cycling community raised enough money to cover the bench and to provide some money to this guy's wife and daughters.

Believe me, if I knew what was wrong with the guy and thought there was anything I could do to help, I would have jumped off my bike right away and lent a hand. Usually, wrecks just result in a ton of road rash and an increase in tempo because the guys up front like to push the pace and try to create a gap from those caught behind the wreck. Very rarely are they deadly. In a race in Silver Spring, MD, I counted at least 6 wrecks in something like 25 laps. It was a miracle that I didn't get caught up in one.

For three days I debated whether or not to continue racing because I thought the guy had died from head trauma, and I definitely didn't want that since I had just become a father. I didn't know until three days later that it was the result of a heart attack. The announcer doesn't usually inform the crowd about that stuff, if he even knows himself.