Trucker Dan

Warning, crash content and nsfw language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haSv4q1tfM8&t=5m11s


I was in this race Sunday. 97 cat 4s. There was crazy dangerous stuff going on from the start. It was on an oval car race track so there were no technical turns to string the pack out. People were about 20 wide the entire race. The pace stayed about 26 mph, too high for attacks to go off but too slow to string out the field.

I managed to stay out of the crash but one of my teammates went down. He was ok but one rider was very seriously injured. About 20 riders went down.

I think Ill be avoiding the crazy big cat 4 races in the future and stick to the smaller races. All the big races end up being giant crash fests.

Creakyknees

Yep, that's what happens when you have 90 starters and a non-selective course.

I know it's horrible, but I laughed out loud when the videographer started yelling at the lady who got in the way.

Creatre

I was in that race Sunday too. I am in the all red that comes out of the crash going about as slow as you can go. When we were on the last lap I bailed, and filtered to the back end of the pack because I could tell bad things were going to happen. We were going too slow, with too many novice's, and were too bunched up. I was pedaling in easy about 3/4 back in the pack when that happened, so was able to dodge the riders when chaos hit even though I was in the middle of the road. Crazy stuff, glad I decided to not sprint that one out. Think I'll stick to the road races.

carpediemracing 

Wow. That gives crits a bad name. The dude that caused the crash, the green/blue wagger, did anyone talk to him? I hate to say it but the guy that crashed first, I can't see how much the green/blue overlapped his wheel, but if it was less than half a wheel, the guy that crashed should have eased a bit. I know, it's the 4s. Still though the guys winning that will be 3s in a month or two.

Part of the problem here is that non-selectiveness, along with the fact that no one has the gumption to really string things out. It takes some doing, okay, but to drill it at 35-37 mph from half a mile out, that would really help string things out. I understand it's the 4s, yes. Hopefully there's a team or three out there that can commit that kind of energy into the bigger sprints.

That videographer is funny, yelling at the lady. 'Yeah, you!'

I'm also not used to the other accent (Phil/Paul being one accent). I suppose if those in the video raced up in CT they'd notice the different accent too. Makes racing more "American", if you will. I like it.

hammy56

lol

shovelhd

The green/blue guy was all over the road well before he took the wheel out from the guy behind him. He needs to be spoken to.

teetopkram

Not doing this, I believe, is why I've gotten into two bad crashes in the past couple of years, neither of which were my fault per se. I'll freely admit that even when I suspect or have a gut feel that something could go wrong, the adrenalin and testosterone cloud my judgment and I just stay in the race. When I return to racing from my most recent accident, changing this approach is my #1 goal. Good for you to practice it.

kindablue

Reminds me to
1) get out of the 4s asap
2) spend more time at the track (its really helped me with pack riding)

kaiserboy

What the hell!! Sprinting for 30th place......crazy.

botto 

almost as stupid as the crash is the amount of riders who turned around to see what happened.

three words describe that "race" - kentucky fried fredathon.

wanders

What accent?

SlimRider

Smart move, avoiding the Big cat 4!

gsteinb

it's always good to drop F bombs while on mike.

topflightpro

I've done lots of races on oval tracks and have seen lots of crashes. The one time I got taken down in one was because the pace slowed as we started the final lap - the guys up front wanted to save their legs for the sprint.

There have been several crits where I have sat up just before the last lap and let the field go simply because I expected the sprint to result in a crash. Even in tight corner crits, which tends to string out the field, I've seen it happen - though in those cases, someone takes the turn too fast and plows into the curb.

waterrockets 

Yeah, if "spoken" in this case means stabbed by all the old spokes I have in my shop.


If it's the last lap, rather than sit up, why not just attack and be either off the front or off the back from that effort? At the very least, you'll get a better workout, and the race will be safer for everyone.

topflightpro

Good question. In all those cases, I was too far back to be able to launch a decent attack and/or had too little left in the tank. So I knew that at best, I would be in the middle of the pack. In my mind, there's really no point in fighting for 15th place instead of 25th. The payout ($0) is the same.

Creatre

I agree with this statement. I would have preferred to make a go at the front myself, but after crashing in a corner on a road course track like this one last year, I was nervous pedaling through the sweeping corners and kept loosing too much position. With the speed we were going, a hard attack with one lap to go would have either won it, or super strung out the field and we wouldn't have had this wreck. But, I figured just sit in for this one, and attack/be competitive in the road races or crit's I feel more comfortable in.

rkwaki

I was having it out with an official once (it wasn't directed at him) and he stopped and asked me to tone it back a bit as there were children around. I felt really bad about that and sent a letter of apology to the official and USA Cycling.

zigmeister

Yeah, pros never have this happen. Oh wait, didn't Cav just last week have his wheel overlapped on Farrar when he jumped right during a bunch sprint as another rider was moving left into Cav, causing him to crash?

Oh, but this only happens to Cat 4/5s apparently.

topflightpro

I saw a guy get DQ'd once for hollering MF'er as he crossed the finish line - he had narrowly lost the sprint.

rkwaki

I have learned as I have gotten older that I am very nice to people most of the time and really fun to be around that way when I lose it people give me a little more leeway
The official in this case handled it extremely well as he knew I was pissed (remember I am a big fugger) and I was correct in being upset.

adclark

I crashed in the road race the first weekend of this event because of somebody doing something stupid then. Luckily I skipped this weekend. That is why I plan to avoid next weekend's races too.

gsteinb

heavens

Racer Ex 

Zigmeister: You backed my new truck into a parking lot dumpster?

Zigmeister's Girlfriend: Hey, Danica Patrick crashed at Daytona.

Zigmeister: Gosh, you're right. That's exactly the same thing.

rkwaki

Epic post... Bwahahaha