So...

...you guys remember this video, right?



Yeah? You think, this shit could NEVER happen to me. Well, I'm here to say, it happens, and it happened to Tipper last night.

About 90 minutes into the Urban Assault ride, we hit Granby Park to bomb the River Trail. I rolled off first, and the group followed. Tipper was 4th or 5th wheel. I saw a HUGE doe (a deer, a female deer...c'mon, you sang that part...) stomping through the standing water beside the trail. It jumped into the tree line, and seeing that it was pitch black, and I was concentrating on not riding directly into the trees, I forgot about it almost immediately.
Jump forward maybe 10 seconds...
Coming around the bend, and down the hill, I saw water crossing the trail, just before the bend. I slowed, and thought that someone was going to eat it right there. Well, coming in from the right, the aforementioned doe (sing it!) emerged from the tree line at high speed and just DESTROYED poor Tipper. Think Ray Lewis hitting a receiver at full speed! The deer easily had 50 pounds on him!
It hit him, and the bike got swept out from under his scrawny ass in the blink of an eye. He spun around, and hit the lip of the cement trail, then went into the foot deep water beside the trail.
To say the collision was violent, and blindingly fast, would be an understatement. It sounded like a bomb went off!
Dragged from the water, Tipper laid on the trail, in the fetal position, for a solid 10 minutes...in soaking wet kit...in 50 degree temps. As my grandpa would say, "That boy was stoved up!"
The Cycle Center crew all stayed with him, and eventually walked him out of the park. Fortunately, there was a Park Ranger waiting. PR Brazel drove Tip up to the USC Baseball stadium (2x back to back National Champions, btw!) to wait for emergency extraction by his wife.
I'm no Doc, but IMO, nothing was broken. I CAN say though, his boney ass is gonna be SORE for a few days!!

Here's a cursory schematic of the incident...



Be aware of your surroundings, and keep your head on a swivel folks!

Other than that, it was a pretty good/fun ride!