carrera65

Just got back from Dana Point. Very well run race. Did anyone take any pix?

jmechy

race report: Total crashfest. one crash in front and to the side of me, one crash that took down the line i was following not 5 seconds earlier, and one crash that sent me to the hospital in an ambulance...

Interesting and fun course, but too narrow and dangerous for the amount of people on it

igoyippy4skippy

Let me guess the cat 4 race? that was a crash fest for me. to many rider not enough road

cjbruin

I think it was the 35+

jmechy

yup, Cat 4.
Needless to say I won't be doing that race in the future.

igoyippy4skippy

Which crash was it? I got caught behind the one after turn two in the straight and then the other one that was pretty bad, the one after turn 5 in the bales of hay on coast highway. That crash ruined the race for me as I got caught behind it and had to stop and was redlining it to much to just catch up and hang on the back.

jmechy

I saw your first crash and NARROWLY avoided your second. I was on the outside line until a few seconds before that turn, for some reason on that lap and that lap alone I went for a center line through there. At the time I was really glad to have missed it, but perhaps it would have resulted in less injury...
The crash I was in was the final one, between the last turn and the finish.

Rumpled

I rode down from my home in Lake Forest (on a MTB with slicks) and saw only parts of the Cat 2 and the whole Pro race.
Man, those guys are fast!
I took some pictures and if any come out OK, I'll try and post some.

Nachoman

My friend said he avoided a couple crashes in the 3s as well. I guess it's just a dangerous course.

blue_nose

NRC race = too many riders so they can collect money for the pro race. 125+ riders on a tight 6/7 corner course is stupid.

Nachoman

I saw Floyd took 29th.

OC Roadie

With the exception of the huge field limit in the 4's, I have to disagree with you guys. That course wasn't any more dangerous than any other bike race, and just because it had more than 4 right hand turns, it wasn't extremely "technical". It's a big race with a big crowd and guys were taking chances trying to move up. Our big pile up in the 35+ race was because someone was trying to move up the gutter, along the barriers and just got too close. It was on the longest straight sections and the widest. The course itself was super wide, with clean lines to go at least two wide through every corner. I bet the crash to rider ratio wasn't any different than any other crit.

jmechy

it certainly was in the 4's. I don't think there has been a crash in the dominguez hills cat 4 races all year, yet there were apparently 4 in one race at Dana Point.

OC Roadie

I agree that the 4's should have been limited to 100 or even 75. I was signed up for the 4's and decided to skip it when I saw the field size. I still don't think the course was technical, tight or dangerous.

BTW- Hope you heal up quick, that looked nasty.

igoyippy4skippy

I think it was to many Cat 4 racers trying to show off for the crowd and take stupid chances. Not very often you get to race in a downtown area and is quite a change from racing in industrial parks. The course was not that technical with maybe turn 5 being a little to narrow.

Chucklehead

I love that course. Turn 5 was a problem last year and it was still one of my favorite courses. After how tight turn 5 was last year, the entire course seemed WIDE open to me this year. The only issue I had was with turn 6, and that was only because we were carrying so much speed into it at times that it just seemed tight in the group. Any time the apex was open to me, I went through full gas and had no problems.

I don't know how it works for anyone else, but my priorities change according to where I'm positioned in the pack. If I'm sitting in the middle, my crash avoidance system is cranked up to max, and I'm ONLY watching for wrecks in the corners in front of me. If I want to move, I'm outside and moving up on the straights. No exceptions, not even the final corner.
It sounds simple, and everyone claims they don't do it, but I STILL see people constantly overlapping wheels in corners in the 3's. All it takes is one bobble by the guy in front of you and you're done.

Rumpled

A buddy watching the early races said he thought one of the crashes in the 4's was due to a lost chain.

Here's an attempt at a few shots

An early pro turn
an early pro breakaway
some interesting frames
the winner about to win

swimmer88

I was unfortunate enough to crash twice in the cat 4 race.

I crashed once on the straightaway between turn 1 and 2. I was directly behind two guys who bumped hard into each other and went down. I had nowhere to go and ran straight into them. I landed on my back and didn't even get a scratch, but my bike was wrecked. The guys in the pit gave me a neutral bike and I jumped back into the field. Now, here's the interested part. I knew it was risky being on a new bike, so I jumped out FAR in front of the field to test out the bike and how it handled (thus avoiding putting others in danger, while keeping myself in the race).

The second crash was in turn 5. I was riding with a teammate of mine, and we both had been bumped multiple times going through previous corners. We were yelling at people, but with 130+ riders, it's tough to single out any individuals. I was on the outside going into turn 5, and got bumped by someone on my inside right before the apex. I kept my balance and continued to corner, but I came out of the apex pushed way outside. Suddenly the hay bail was right in front of me and there was no room to avoid it. I hit the brakes, laid down the bike, and went straight into the hay. Unfortunately, a 6 or 7 others went down right over top of me, including a teammate of mine who was involved in the first crash as well. That crash hurt me a lot more than the bike, but from the looks of it, everyone walked away with just some bumps and bruises.

Having raced and ridden for a number of years, I feel very confident in my bike handling skills. Even though I was on a neutral bike for the second crash, I highly doubt I would have been able to avoid it had I been on my own bike. The field was WAY TOO BIG and should have been capped at 75. If you weren't in the top 10, you were braking into EVERY corner. Even though the race organizers did a great job of making the course wider and safer, 130+ cat 4 riders is not safe on any crit course. The cat 5's and 30+ 4/5's were limited to 50 and 75 respectively, and both races were 100% crash-free. Hmmmm....

I will be at this race next year as long as the field size is decreased. I sincerely hope that anyone else involved in the ~6 crashes in the cat 4 race was OK and didn't suffer any serious injuries.

Cleave

Hello,

I rode the same course last year when it was the Master District Criterium Championship. My only complaint about the course was that the straight between turns 5 and 6 was a bit narrow. I think one guy went down when he broke his chain, otherwise the 50+ race was crash free.

I went and watched a bit on Sunday and I was pretty impressed with the course preparation -- hay bales, padded barriers, etc.

I agree that 130 Cat 4s on that course -- heck, almost any course -- is a recipe for disaster.

OCshark

Given that most of us are amateur racers, I'd prefer if promoters shrunk the fields. I'd pay $10 more per race if the field was limited to 75 riders.

1265 Lombardi

Wow, looking at the results cat 4s lost half the field at the finish! Only 65 finished?! I came in back end of the pack and I was 54th to cross the line out of 130 or so who started. I guess the crashes took more toll than I thought.

jmechy

Out of 130 starters? I wonder how many people got dropped and how many people were actually crashed out. I really hope that almost half the field wasn't crashed out...

igoyippy4skippy

well they could have been like me where you get caught behind a crash and have to spend all that energy just to get to the back of the pack. I was spent so i dropped with 10 minutes to go. I just couldn't hang on to the back as it didn't give me a chance to recover at all.

Gretzky

What up Lee?

swimmer88

lol...hey greg