Watch out for that tree . . . .

---

You get by with a little help from your friends
A bit of a late start this morning after a great night in Washington Missouri. Our stay in the carpark was uneventful, although we did get a visit from the police in the morning asking if we heard anything as a boat had been stolen over night. We drove out of the city and back on to the course route and started our first 25km leg. This included a very steep 15% hill of about a kilometre which certainly got the blood pumping. On the first driver change I got in the van while Dave, Tom and Jeff rode on. And that's when the "fun" started. I had driven ahead and parked to ensure the boys went in the right direction when I got a call from Dave indicating that Jeff had taken a tumble. Unfortunately Jeff had hit a rock at about 40km/hr coming down a hill and taken a spill. People had stopped to help him by the time I got to him and already called an ambulance. Jeff and Tom rode the ambulance to St Joseph's hospital while Dave and I followed in the RV. After a number of x-Ray's and some observation Jeff was given the all clear, bruised and a little battered, but nothing broken. He'll certainly need a day or two off the bike though. We decided to take the rest of the day off and instead drove into St Louis and went to see a ball game at Brusch Park right in the middle of the city. The drive there was through the seedier part of town, definitely not somewhere you'd like to run out of petrol. After the game we drove to Greenville and found the local Hospital and parked the RV. It was ver late, about 1am. Plans for tomorrow still up in the air but we'll be back on the bikes.

Puncture / Mechanical Count
Tom: 6 - he got another puncture at the bottom of the hill where Jeff came off.
Jeff: 1 puncture, 2 blowouts and a rear tyre replacement
Dave: 2 punctures
Mark: 0

Footnote. #1
On the serious side, the people who stopped to help Jeff couldn't have been nicer. The police who turned up and the ambulance Team all did a great job. Jeff was also very well looked after by the staff at St Joseph's Hospital in Lake St Louis. This just emphasises the point that we have to be very careful out on the road and look out for each other and rocks. Footnote: #2The Canondale survived unscathed and has lived to be ridden another day.

---

Photos

Selfie while riding
Very naughty

In the ER
Note the concern from Tom