Matthew Robbins (cedarcreek) posted a report early this morning on AttackPoint. Thank you, Matthew!
Who are we going to hear from next?!
“I met the RV at the Dayton Airport, and chatted with Ken and Pete for about an hour while Sandy was driving in from Indianapolis. We drove north to Troy, and arrived 10 or 15 minutes ahead of the minivan and the rider.
Everyone seemed weary. Ken said he had improved a lot since he got out of the hospital. His 4 broken ribs aren’t as sore, and he has been taking deep breaths easily for about a day (before that it was painful, but necessary to avoid complications like pneumonia). Eddie said he’s had 11 hours of sleep in 6 days.
I took a lot of photos between 12:27am and 1:20am. Then I drove 1 hour to Cincinnati, processed the photos and put them on my website. I didn’t do any editing. The photos are all available light—no flash. Some of them came out really well. Since it’s now 3:36am, and I have to get up at 7am, the high-res photos might not work for a day or so. Once I get them posted, I’ll leave them up for a month or so. Team Nor’easter is 413. I took photos of every team I saw.
The rider on the Cervelo (O’Keefe) is Canadian, and a single, meaning he’s ridden this far completely by himself. That was probably the most surreal experience of the night. His support crew didn’t smile at all, spoke very softly, and moved in slow motion. It reminded me of the Do Lung Bridge scene in Apocalpse Now where this soldier on acid prepares a grenade launcher. It sort of freaked me out.
Ken said he was in the hospital when another rider got brought in for a wreck maybe 2 minutes past where he wrecked. He said the guy’s own minivan collided with him, and he broke the window with his elbow, and ended up with 50+ stitches. If you look at the last two photos, you’ll notice a minivan with a broken window. I asked if they were that team, and not only were they the team, the guy in the last photo, who had just ridden in, was they guy in the hospital with Ken.
I kept telling myself, “These people are crazy”, but every indication was against that. Everyone seemed level headed and as normal as you or I.”