I was riding and some very strange stuff happened. It went like this:

We started a group ride from Royal Coffee on 63rd and College Avenue. It was a usual Sunday, we grabbed some coffee, made some chit chat with everyone, and then headed over the hills.
Then as I am riding down a fast and gradual descent on North Pinehurst, I hit a humungous invisible pot hole in the rode (this not the exciting part . . . oh wait, I am not sure if any of this is exciting), which was not too big of a deal. But then my water bottle flew into the air and somehow lodged itself into the spokes of my rear wheel. Now we were going atleast 35 mph here, but now suddenly my wheels will not turn, I can’t pedal, no nothing. So I skidded for 50 feet with my bike spewing water and smoking rubber until my tire exploded.
How many people does it take to fix my bike?

Now check out this tire. This was the Maxxis Re-Fuse, which I have to say is a pretty harty tire here. You can even see how many layers are actually on this tire. Here’s a tip I learned from this experience: if you have a major tire disaster such as the one shown above, make a boot to get you to the nearest shop with your gel or bar wrapper. When this isn’t enough, use a large piece of the olde tube and layer it with your wrappers and this should do the trick . . . it worked for this situation here, where my rear tire was obviously in pretty rough shape.

Speaking of rough shape, I just wanted you guys to know that our ValueAct Teamie Taitt Sato was hit by a car last Wednesday on our training ride. We are still awaiting a final diagnosis, but it looks like she has some ligament damage to her knee. So if you have some spare energy, please send her some positive “get better” energy so we can have her back on her bike soon.

Here is Taitt kicking ass at Cat’s Hill last week.

One more thing . . . K-man has me featured at as Oregonian racer on his blog here, so check it out!