Ray Bradley was lying facedown in a ditch on the side of the road, having suffered a cardiac arrest while out for a bicycle ride around his neighborhood, but his bike was leaning safely against a tree.

“He must have known something was going on because he leaned his bike against a tree,” his wife, Colleen Bradley, said. “It’s a brand-new bike. We joke with him that his bike survived.”

Ray has no memory of placing his bike against the tree.

The Fuji bicycle was a Christmas gift from his sons: Shawn, 29; Kyle, 26; and Dylan, 22.

Bradley is a member of The Jim Thorpers Bicycle Team, a group that rides in the annual Tour de Shore, a 65-mile bike ride from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. The ride benefits the families of fallen police officers and various children’s charities. The team also has numerous training rides in Carbon County to get ready for the big ride. Some rides are long, some short. Some have a couple of riders, other have dozens. There is basically something for everyone.

In 2016, Ray rode in the Tour de Shore on his hybrid bicycle, a bike that can be ridden on the road or paths. On April 20, 2017, Ray was out for one of the first training rides of the season.

“Last spring, in training for the tour, I was doing the cardio, riding the bike, and two or three days a week I was working with Sam Bonner with weight training,” Ray said. “When this happened I was probably in the best physical shape I had been in in years.”

Ray mentioned that between the 2016 Tour de Shore and the time of his cardiac arrest, he was down 40 pounds.

“It had been a goal to put less weight on the bike to make it easier to pedal,” Bradley said. “The new Fuji that the boys bought me, much lighter. So I’ve got a better bike, a lighter body, I worked harder, longer to get in shape, and then …”

Ray got back on the bicycle for some rides around the neighborhood about six months after the incident.

“Probably the guy that pushed me the most to get out and ride was Chip Burnett,” Bradley said. “He’d drive up, or meet me down at the Glen and we’d do short 10-12 mile rides. It was important to me to get back on the bike.”

After having to skip the Tour de Shore last year, Ray was hoping to ride it this year, but because of several setbacks he knows he won’t be ready. His goal is now to be ready for the 2019 ride.

“I had hoped to be able to do it this year. It’s not going to happen this year. I’m not going to be ready,” Ray said. But he plans to be ready for next year.

“That’s all he talked about even while he was out of it. He doesn’t remember. The doctor asked me about his obsession with a bike, thought he was talking about a motorcycle,” Colleen said.

All of the doctors have told Ray that he can start riding again, just not to the point of training for the Tour de Shore.

“I’ll never be ready this year. I would have been without the setbacks,” Bradley said. “The goal now is to be healthy enough to do it next year.

“I think that was one of the big problems I had with recovery. It almost seem like a loss of purpose,” Ray said. “Being part of the Jim Thorpers, being part of that team, was so great, and now I can’t ride, so that’s an extra loss.”

Ray said that the team members assured him that he’s still part of the team, but that it’s not the same as being on the trail with the guys riding the bike.

“Without the support of family, all the great people in town and the Jim Thorpers it would have been much more difficult to get through this.” Ray said. “It was incredible.”

Colleen agreed, adding, “I would tell Ray, but he still has no memory of a lot of it. They kept calling, stopping by, bringing food, giving donations. The encouragement they gave really helped.”