"He said Mr Rowley could have been travelling at a speed of 40 - 55mph but it was hard to know how much of that would have been slowed by the collision."

Eh?

Maybe somebody with more brain than I currently seem to have available could explain the above to me.

Aside from that, I truly believe that one of the most hazardous things we do is ride in a group.
It takes more planning than just all jumping on and following the guy in front. For so many reasons.

Not least of which is that by agreeing to ride at the speed of the slowest guy, you don't put anyone under pressure to keep up. And therefor end up riding way outside of their comfort zone. And so taking wider lines than is safe around even the gentlest of bends. Which is most likely what happened here.

Granted, there is usually at least one guy in any group who is the natural show-off, but in my youth we just tended to let that guy piss off into the distance on his own. These types either found another group to ride with, or reined themselves in pretty sharpish.

I wonder how many of this particular group actually knew what their destination was - another contributer to folk riding faster than their ability safely allows. They don't know where the group is going, so they HAVE to keep up.

As an aside, I like the bit that says that bike accidents are frequent in North Wales. Does this mean that Brunstrom's tactics aren't working?