Providence Velo Club

On today’s installment of the Mark Nicholson Smack Down we had 6 riders at the start. One we lost somewhere around the first sprint point. We waited up, but were pretty sure he must have missed a turn. Hoping he made it back ok. After the top of Tourtellot Hill (where I was feeling pretty good about myself, having won the sprint against Nate and Aaron), Geoff came by with pretty intense pace (he seems to do that to pay us little guys back for making him hurt on the climbs). Nate and Aaron had hooked up with Geoff. I was coming around Naveen to try to bridge. That’s when I saw it. A dog had me in its sights and was charging full speed into the road. My speedometer had been reading about 30 or so a few seconds before. CRACK. The unmistakable sound of cracking carbon fiber. I don’t want to look back. Aaron had a similar feeling. We were sure we were going to find blood and protruding bones. I was somewhat relieved to hear Naveen screaming obscenities, but only somewhat. The woman who owned the dog came out, and luckily she was an EMT. After fairly thorough testing, it seemed that Naveen had not suffered any broken bones. His hip was still clearly hurting when we left, but he was able to stand with assistance and the woman drove him home to Attleboro. Still waiting to hear how he is, and I’ll post an update as soon as I do. Shit, that was scary. But, if you’re wondering what a Giant Carbon Frame looks like after hitting a dog at 30 mph, wonder no more.