So far this season I’ve started 12 mass start road events which have yielded 6 crashes (5 in criteriums and 1 in a road race). All but, one were masters races which were cat 1/2/3 so you’d expect experience to be relatively high. Astonishingly, I’ve been in the middle of 3 of them and have not gone down. In each case I either hit a rider who was on the pave or bunny hopped over legs/arms/wheels…or hit someones bike as it was on the ground. I keep replaying each one in my head and it’s super interesting to note (or not) that I was hyper focused on my front wheel as the crashes enveloped me. IDK if that indicates anything worth noting but, I just thought that was interesting as I’ve never been in a crash and didn’t go down myself. Speeds were high and the race was full tilt. I’m calking it up to luck for now as I should have gone down in each case.
These have all been in the SoCal and SouthWest USA. I don’t think there is any one contributing factor, however, there very well might be. I just have no way to know. Similar numbers. Similar players, etc…Curious if you guys are experiencing a higher rate of crashes in your races this year?