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Posted on Wed, Jan. 4, 2006

CYCLIST KILLED IN STORM IDENTIFIED - RESEARCH SCIENTIST, 39, STRUCK BY FALLING TREE
Byline: Sandra Gonzales, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Jan. 4--
Eric Saltzman heard a loud snap as he and a friend rode their bikes on
a familiar narrow road in the Los Altos Hills. He turned around and
saw a eucalyptus tree hit an electrical wire.

When Saltzman went back, he found his friend, Dan Plummer, underneath
the tree. He went to get help, but it was too late.

Plummer, 39, a champion cyclist and research scientist from Redwood
City, died instantly Sunday morning on the Natoma Road route they rode
at least once a week -- a victim of the wet, wild weather that socked
the Bay Area during the past few days.

"It's unbelievably freakish," said Colin Cooper, another friend who
regularly raced with Plummer on Team Spine, a Northern California
amateur road-racing team. "It's an absolute tragedy. You're always
worried about getting into a bike wreck, about getting hit by a car,
but nobody would think about a tree falling on you. That's the last
thing you would think of."

The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office couldn't confirm the identity
Monday night because authorities had yet to reach any next of kin.

Reached by telephone at his Menlo Park home, Saltzman said he was
still shaken.

Plummer "was a great guy, a great friend, somebody we will all miss
very much," he said. "We are still struggling to come to grips with
this."

Neither of them were riding very fast on the hilly street near Black
Mountain Road because it was wet and windy, Saltzman said.

"People ride there all the time," Saltzman said. "We rode together
several times a week, and that was one of our regular areas."

Plummer had a distinguished academic pedigree. He had bachelor's and
master's degrees from Brown University and a doctorate from the
University of California-San Diego, where he also served on the
faculty of the School of Medicine.

His biography on the cycling club's Web site lists photography,
writing, reading and "various technology geek stuff" as his
interests.

But his real love was cycling, friends say.

"He lived for it. It was his life. The cycling team was his family
out here," Cooper said. "He was incredibly dedicated to the sport."

Plummer, originally from Massachusetts, had been cycling competitively
for about 10 years. "He was incredibly smart, witty and friendly.
Everybody's really devastated by this," Cooper said.

The team, planning a memorial ride for him, left a tribute on its Web
site:

"Our friend, our team mate, our brother, we'll miss you. Every pedal
stroke you are with us, in our hearts and forever on the team."