A different kind of TNR

Thursday again, and time for the Thursday Night Ride.  I had some time today and the weather was decent, so I rode the 40 Mile Loop as a warm up.  I finished up a bit early, so I rode into the Lloyd District for a quick bite to eat. I recognized a couple of other guys who would be at TNR, also grabbing some snacks.

I still got to the start a bit early, but the crowd was already beginning to gather.

We rolled out "in a big chill group", just like normal.  Nathan led us across the Burnside Bridge, taking all three lanes.  Nobody complained, we outnumbered them!

You can see me in my bright yellow jacket right above the guy taking the photo

Michael's photo

We stopped at Fred Meyer to allow folks to grab some snacks.  Most of us had no need for snacks so we just sat in the parking lot visiting for a bit.

Nathan led us out again.  After a couple of miles the front of the group came to a quick halt. I'm normally somewhere near the front of the pack, but today I was quite a way back.  I didn't see what happened, but could tell that it wasn't good.

The group behaved like good citizens.  We cleared the street, and Chad B. in the red hat,  stepped right up and did a fine job of directing traffic. I came to find out that Nathan's bike's head tube broke off. (Friday update: From photos it appears the forks broke near the head tube)

Mike H photo

 For non bikey people reading here, that means that the front wheel was no longer attached to the bike.  Not good!

Yes, the ambulance was there to attend to him.

We were led away by a substitute ride leader to clear the scene.  As I rode by I could see Nathan, and it appeared that he was quite bloody.

The after party still happened, but was a bit more subdued than normal.

Ronaldo's photo

Nathan posted to Facebook later in the evening saying he was fine.  I suppose it is all relative.

I did manage to get 60 miles in on the fixed gear bike today.

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .........60................0...................0.......................0............60
Jan...............0................0...............,...0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........363...............0..................0.......................0...........363
YTD...... 1323...............0...................0.......................0..........1323