What started out to be a casual solo MTB ride in the park (The park is 1/2 mile from my home) in between rain clouds turned out to be a bad-news ride. Not 10 minutes into my ride, I received a phone call from one of my cycling mates, Ron, who is one of three in our group that never drops their wheel mates for any reason, telling me that another member of our group just crashed his bike into a curb, and that he would like for me to drive my truck to where the crash happened so that I could transport the victim’s bike back to my place. Unfortunately, my wife was using the truck at the time, leaving me in a position where I couldn’t help. I then called Sandy at home (who I was supposed to ride with today until we noticed the weather radar full of rain heading our way) and asked him if he could please drive over to the accident scene on Griffin Road just east of Interstate 75. Sandy agreed to do so without a moment’s hesitation. From what I understood from Ron via our brief cell phone conversation, the crash-victim hit the person’s rear wheel (with his front wheel) that was riding ahead of him, causing himself and his bike to crash on the asphalt road and concrete curb. The person that was hit maintained his balance. I also understood that the victim landed right on his face, causing several lacerations resulting in profuse bleeding. The other two cyclists called 911 right away. The victim was then transported to a local hospital prior to Sandy arriving on the scene. Under the disheartened circumstances, I’m not going to beleaguer the subject. But if I’ve told everyone once, I’ve told them a million times not to ride too close to the cyclist in front of them. But despite my pleading with them, hardly a ride would go by that someone wasn’t overlapping my rear wheel with their front wheel, comprising my safety and theirs. In summary, this is just another reason why I prefer to ride alone.