carleton

Yeah, I think that guy works at Specialized (if it's the person I'm thinking of). He's very fast and knows what he likes.


You know, I've seen that almost happen several times at that track. I watched Gideon Massie almost wreck after a sprint heat in the same manner years ago.

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe the finish line is closer to the turn than people expect? Not sure.

topflightpro

I saw something similar in training at Rock Hill. Guy pulled off a pursuit paceline too hard and fast, flew up hit the wall, went airborne, then hit the wall again about 8 feet later and slid down the track.

rensho3

VSC is my home track. I have only seen one other person do that. In my opinion, the guy was gassed from beating the Russian, and just forgot to see where he was. I almost did that once myself during State champs and it was because I wasn't paying attention to where I was on the track. I am not being critical of the guy (as I said, I almost did it myself once), but there is nothing about the track that launches you into that. All you have to do is remember to lean left and put pressure on the left bar end at the end of the effort

carleton

Maybe it's a function of training on a 333m and racing the biggest event of the year on a 250m type of thing? At a certain point of exhaustion, habit kicks in.

rensho3

It's been a long time since I trained on a 333. I hadn't thought of that, and I agree that could have been the reason.

bitingduck

I've seen it happen a few times, including one guy who managed to yank himself and his bike over the balustrade, rather than crash.

My impression has been that it's mostly people who aren't used to a steep track but have watched a few steep track finishes on video or TV. It can look like riders are turning right to go up track and dump speed, but they're really just going straight as they hit the turn, like in a TP exchange, leveling out 1/2-2/3 the way up, and then floating to the next straight, where they then take it easy getting off track. From typical camera angles it can look like a right turn, but there's really no active turn or lean to the right at all.

I once saw someone turn right to make a high speed TP exchange. His foot hit the track on the high side and came out of the pedal. Amazingly, nobody went down, but it looked more like a Keirin than a TP.

Divebrian

I know the guy who crashed and saw him last night. He had to come over the top of the Russian and it came down to a bike throw at the line. He said he threw his bike so hard that he was actually looking at the track surface behind his bike and that by the time he looked up, he was right there at the wall. The railing is a galvanized pipe that is screwed together with couplings at the junctions rather than a smooth, welded pipe/rail. He got unlucky and hit right where there was a junction and it ripped him open under his eye and down the side of his nose to his top lip. He spent a few hours in the hospital and got a ton of stitches. Doctor said he was extremely lucky and only came away with a broken nose, if it was an inch higher that he would have lost his right eye and had it been a bit lower he would have lost quite a few teeth. He is in good spirits and already looking forward to next year. It was 1-1 and going to a 3rd ride for the bronze medal when he crashed....not quite the way you want to end you 1st Worlds.

carleton

Jeez. I'm glad he's OK.

kings run east

+1

nslckevin

A number of riders (myself included) are using the Specialized Shiv as a pursuit/team pursuit bike. Some are also using it for mass start with kind of a custom head tube adapter to give it enough stack and clear the frame. (A normal stem wouldn't fit as the back of the stem where the bolts are would hit the frame.) One rider in particular, Larry Nolan won the points race last year in Manchester on his Shiv and won his scratch race heat this year. I'm using a Langster for mass start as I didn't have time to get comfortable on the Shiv as a mass start bike. But in the past I used a transition at masters track nationals in 2008.

topflightpro

Is BB height not an issue with the Shiv?

I know Rock Hill has a minimum BB height, though, I've never actually measured the BB height from the ground on any of my bikes.

queerpunk

There was a bomb-ass IP final in the men's 50-54 last night... it was so dope i charted the splits.

Divebrian

What's even crazier than M 50-54 was the one the previous night. I'd have to look at the schedule to be sure which one it was, it was the mens gold/silver ride, I believe for the 60-64 and the lead changed six different times or something like that during the course of the race. One rider would have a .1 or .2 second advantage and the other rider would pull it back and then have a slight advantage and they went back and fourth like that and ended up being so close at the finish that you had to wait and see who they announced as the winner.

carleton

My man!


Hahahaha, that looks awesome. I bet it was crazy exciting to watch.

nslckevin

The BB is certainly lower than a track bike. I'm not sure exactly how much. I use 175's for road TT's and pursuit/TP. At both Aguascalientes and VSC while going really slow on the track I've grazed the outside of my shoe on the track. I did not like that at all. I know that Larry is using 167.5 cranks and has done so for a number of years with no problems. Perhaps a really abrupt move up track with bad timing on your outside pedal could be an issue even with the shorter cranks? I don't really know.

bitingduck

It can happen, but if you're aware of the limits of your cranks/bb it's not likely to. There was a guy some years ago who was riding custom 190s or something crazy like that in Keirins, and it never managed to kill him. IIRC, he was pretty wiggly on the bike, and even with that and the cranks, he wasn't particularly crash prone.