I don’t like watching other cyclists crash but this video, this one held me transfixed. Apparently, racing elbow to elbow in a peleton (especially in a Cat 4) can be just as dangerous as racing downhill bikes.
According to the YouTube poster, the first rider to crash was up and walking after the incident, but was taken to the hospital afterwards just in case.
Just thought I would throw in my two cents as I was in this race (I’m in the neon trimmed shorts when the video is stopped)! Yikes, the video doesn’t do the sound justice. I had a team mate in parking lot 2 blocks away who heard the sound…it was sickening.
This is the Cat4 crit, and obviously yes everyone was moving way too fast through that last corner. I think the course was definitely not as safe as it could have been. The finishing stretch was located on the main street of town. The video is from the final turn of the race, corner four, which was slightly down hill, and also had a manhole cover located right near the apex. I think the organizers felt pressure to put the finish on the main street with all the store fronts…but the ironic thing was that the first turn of the course was a nice sweeping left hander…onto a road that was 4 lanes wide! Not one and a half like the main street.
As for the leader (first crasher), he can definitely handle his bike…as he had raced with me at Battenkill a few weeks before. This was just a bad case of trying to get a run into the sprint, and a less than ideal course layout. His bike was obliterated. The fork was sheared in half, and the same happened to his front wheel (a zipp 404). A lot of people were carrying their bikes out after that one….
Crashes happen…it is part of our sport, and it is endemic through all levels of our sport, and through all disciplines. To pretend that they only happen at one level or in one style of racing is naive. I have seen crashes happen on a straight flat stretch of road in the Tour de France, does that mean the pros don’t know how to handle their bikes? No!
The key with any accident is to analyze the cause and try to make adjustments in your riding to prevent it in the future. Was it something you did, or a particular feature of the course, something another rider did? Whatever the reason, if you continue racing or riding long enough, the law of averages WILL catch up to you.
