A cautionary tale out of Colorado that comes just in time from what’s forecast to be a springlike weekend in North Carolina. Yesterday, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (at left) took a spill on a morning road ride with four friends. His front wheel touched the rear wheel of the bike in front of him, he went down, he fractured several ribs on his right side. A bad crash that could have been worse for the governor had he not been wearing a helmet.

“Wear your helmet if you’re riding a bike,” the governor was quoted as saying as he recovered in in a Denver hospital. “Anybody who rides a bike without a helmet is just nuts.”

That’s point No. 1 for this weekend. With temperatures forecast to climb above 60 throughout much of the state, a lot of folks will be pulling their bikes out of storage and taking a ride. Make sure you pull out your helmet, too. And make doubly sure your kids do — it’s the law for the 16 and under set in North Carolina.

Point No. 2 — A lot of road riders will be banding together and heading out on group rides, if not this weekend, then certainly as the month warms and Daylight Saving Time (mark your calendars: March 14) ramps up the road riding season. What exactly led to the governor’s front wheel touching the rear wheel of the rider in front of him wasn’t disclosed (executive privilege, perhaps). Maybe the lead rider unexpectedly slowed, maybe Bill — I’ll get to why I’m calling him Bill in a minute — accelerated a bit. The point: When you’re riding in a pace line, you need to pay close attention to your fellow riders. A few basic rules on pace line riding from the Florida Bicycle Association:

• Avoid overlapping your front wheel with the rear wheel of the rider in front of you. Any sudden direction or speed change may result in the wheels touching AND YOU WILL GO DOWN.
• Be alert! No matter how good a group is, there will be surprises.
• Avoid using your brakes to slow yourself in a pace line; especially if you are near the front. Control your speed by “soft-pedaling.”
• Rotating the pull. The lead rider takes a short turn in the front, then moves to the left (after checking behind) and drifts to the back of the pack. New riders may be intimidated about maintaining the pace at the front; they should be expected to take a shorter pull and drop back as soon as it is safe to do so.
• Do not ride in aero bars while closely following other riders.

We’ll throw in a reminder here to our multi-use trail users as well. Expect trails where bikers, walkers, runners and equestrians share space (the American Tobacco Trail and Umstead State Park’s bike & bridle trail immediately come to mind) to be especially popular with this weekend’s warmer weather.  To make sure we all get along, remember:

• Mountain bikers yield to both walkers and equestrians
• Hikers yield to equestrians
• Equestrians … hey, they’re riding a half-ton animal that may be skittish around bikers and hikers; cut ‘em some slack.

Above all, be aware of your fellow recreators because a fall like Bill took can happen to anyone. When we were co-captains of the Gateway High School football team in 1974, he never missed a down from being injured. Throughout the various and assorted pursuits we endured together as roommates at Colorado State University (including an ill-advised spin on dirt bikes in the Sangre de Cristos and the Mudbowl, I never remember him so much as getting scratched. Being bright and athletic doesn’t grant you a pass from crashing.

Hope you’re back on the bike soon, governor.