The Tour’s going past the spot where Fabio Casartelli was fatally injured in a crash in 1995 reminded me of a similar incident that was much closer to home for me.

Almost two years ago, the last time I did the Six Gap Century in north Georgia (after a full unbroken decade), a rider from Florida, Daniella Izquierdo, crashed on the descent of the most challenging of the six mountain passes on the ride, Hogpen Gap.  Despite nearly immediate attention from two trauma surgeons who also happened to be doing the ride, and a quick airlift to one of the finest hospitals in the area, she passed away two weeks later.

I felt the same way as one of the writers in this thread.  I was floored by the news Daniella had died.

If you ride a bike anywhere, you know academically that you’re running a risk of sudden death.  If you ride in the mountains, that risk goes up dramatically, even if the deaths of Casartelli and Izquierdo are still remote events.  But having someone suffer a fatal injury on a descent you yourself just went down minutes before brings things into much greater clarity.  So it was for me with Daniella.

I didn’t stop riding because of it.  You have to live, after all — and trying for a risk-free life is a sure recipe for misery.  But I’m awfully, awfully diligent to this day about kissing my wife and my boys before I leave.  You just never know…