The rider down story: [John Tolhurst says:]

Well, my little part of the story is my phone call to one of the people in the car, I was calling skype to cell phone from Australia into the suburban which was following Maria. I made the call at 12:34 and it lasted 1:22. I was told to hang on, as they were going to go alongside Maria, I waited, then a bang and a scream of ‘oh my God’ and then ‘click’ as the connection terminated. I waited. I was terrified. I decided to call another phone so at 12:36 I called Doug’s cell and got an answering machine. So I was still beside myself with worry and anxiety. … how long should I wait before calling knowing I can’t actually help but could only impede? I waited an eternity until 12:47. I figured that whatever had happened the immediate responses would have been made, and I got through. Oh wow, then I heard that she was fired up and riding again. I called again at 1:30 PM, which was 1:30 AM my time and decided to sleep some. I woke at 3:45 and checked Jim A’s lap time posting and felt very reassured at the consistent times she was still posting. I slept another 2 hours and again woke to good news on the lap times. But that 12 or 13 minutes knowing something awful had happened and not knowing was pretty intense. Next morning my wife asked why I looked so tired – ah dear lady – she does put up with my eccentricities nicely.