On a sunny Saturday last October, I set out for a 120-kilometre bicycle ride from just north of Toronto to meet my fiancée and the rest of my cycling team near Midland, Ont. I have been a competitive cyclist since the age of 14, so this was a typical recreational ride for me. To avoid the danger of faster-moving traffic on highways and arterial roads, I had carefully planned a route that was mostly on quiet country roads. But despite my best efforts, I could not have predicted or prevented the tragic crash that was about to occur.