During scary and transformative times like these, we often look to history to provide insight, answers or comfort. When have similar calamities befallen mankind in the past, and how did we react? Did new innovations result? Was there eventually a silver lining? There is one historic parallel which should be of great interest to the cycling community. In early April of 1815, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa — just east of today’s popular resort island of Bali — a volcano named Mount Tambora began to rumble. On the 10th of April, the mountain exploded. Huge columns of fire shot from the mountain; plumes of ash and smoke reached 25 miles into the atmosphere. Superheated pyroclastic flows poured down the side of the mountain at 100 miles per hour, destroying everything in their path. 10,000 people were killed almost instantly. Nearby towns were buried with ash, enough to collapse most...