I apologize if this appears more than once. I had not registered for
the group yet.



Yes. There was a problem in waverly.

My father Charles last rode the TOSRV in 1985. He had picked up
riding when he lived in Akron in the early '70s. Over the last 20
years of raising a family and building a company he had put his love
of riding on the back burner. Bringing his bike out occasionally to
ride with me when I used to race in my younger days.

But he had reached the point where his company was doing well, his
children were on their own and he had the time to ride again. And
ride he did. He rode hundreds of miles over the last six months
preparing for the 2005 TOSRV. He convinced me and a friend of his to
join him.

As we drove in from New York on the friday before the event, he was
as happy as I have ever seen him. Our Team Jerseys had arrived in
Columbus, he had lost 30 pounds training for the ride, and he was with
his son. I have been fighting cancer since 2001, with my last surgery
in Feb of this year. He and I have had a tough few years. I can't
imagine what he was going through and seeing his son healthy and
strong made him elated.

This trip was to be our new beginning. We had weathered the storm.

But he never finished the first day. In Waverly he went into
cardiac arrest and died. He was 55.

I was not with him when it happened. Through a mix up, I thought he
was ahead of me and was riding hard to catch him. I made it to mile
96 before I received the phone call. Our riding partner, Craig, was
behind him. But it appeared that whatever happened, happened quickly
as Craig never witnessed an accident scene.

We rejoined each other when he saw me stopped on the side of the
road waiting to be picked up. I have lots of details and numbers and
can put together a clear picture of what happened, but if anyone was
there and has more information, please send me an email at
acperrella@....


I want to end by thanking Pat and Doug, the two TOSRV Radio
Volunteers who helped Craig and I on Sat. They went above and beyond
anything they had to do.



Ride On,
Andrew Perrella

Some Corrections to the article: ValCott is an abbreviation for
Valley Cottage.

My father was not a heart patient who picked up riding recently. His
first TOSRV was in 1975. All indications were that he was in good
health.



--- In tourofthesciotorivervalley@yahoogroups.com, poutineq
<no_reply@y...> wrote:
> A friend e-mailed me, saying that Portsmouth radio reported
> that there was a problem in Waverly yesterday. Does anyone
> know what I'm talking about and can anyone provide details?
>
> My friend gave more details than I am providing now. However,
> without any concrete data, I'd feel like I was spreading a
> rumour, and that is something I don't want to be doing.