Originally Posted by Snicklefritz

I haven't been part of a crash in a race, but I've seen a few. They span a wide range. There was a big crit where I saw a bunch of guys go down (4-5) some came unclipped and went over their bars, but got back up and continued in the race, albeit with a lot of road rash. On the other extreme, a friend of mine was knocked over by someone who swerved to get around a crash. My friend came unclipped, flew over two people and landed on their elbow and had to have surgery.

I think it's something you have to be aware of, but I wouldn't let that deter you from racing. One thing to keep in mind. It is much better to do an emergency stop to avoid a pile-up (if there is one in front of you) than to swerve suddenly to try to go around it. There were a lot of crashes in the CAT4 women's field last year in my area when people tried to swerve around a crash. they would have been better off doing an emergency stop then to take out 10 more people by swerving.