Had my first race crash last weekend. In the spirit of learning, I’m curious what people think in terms of “fault”. In my defense, I think the guy came off his line pretty abruptly. On the other hand, I was potentially overly focused on not touching my breaks and tried to squeeze through the turn.
Video here:
Thankfully I was the only one to go down. Front wheel is trashed and needs to be replaced, waiting to hear how the rest of the bike checks out. Substantial road rash resulting from full deceleration from 26 mph on my left ass cheek, but thankful nothing is broken.
Yup, you put yourself into a tight “pinch point” and suffered from a chain reaction of line changes that started 3 riders ahead of you. Mostly a racing thing from my eyes, and you just ended up in the wrong place, wrong time.
As you mention, braking a tad as to not overlap the guy’s wheel would have likely kept you up at that point. I don’t get the sense that you needed to be on his hip right then, and could have moved up after the tight spot within reason. Hard call in the moment for sure.
Yeah, it looks like all 3 of you maybe did little things wrong that ended with you having to pay the full price. You probably shouldn’t have been half wheeling him through what looked like a pinch point on the tightest turn of the course. But it also looks like he may have over reacted to the other guy causing him to swerve into you. So nothing really egregious on your part but you put yourself in a risky spot and it didn’t work out.
Also, idk where this was in the race but you guys were moving at 20-25 MPH for the first minute of the video and you were in the wind the entire time. So unless that was the last lap and you were way out of position you probably would have saved like 100W by grabbing a wheel up that rise and sitting in the draft.
This was coming up to one lap to go so was trying to move up before things got strung out.
That being said, me sitting with my nose in the wind excessively is a good summary of the preceding 75 minutes of racing. Still learning how to navigate and maintain position in the pack safely.
I think you own this one. The rider did move off his line abruptly, but that is part and parcel of racing. Those things will happen. The person in front of you cannot see you and if you have to own the responsibility of your safety. You were in a pinch point, but more importantly, your wheel was overlapping with his. Had you been slotted behind his wheel, there would have been no risk to your front wheel. It is just an experience thing, you protect your front wheel at all costs. You don’t have to be directly aligned with the wheel in front of you, but avoid overlap at all costs unless you are in more of an echelon formation.
I’m glad you’re ok, lesson to be learned. You have to be ready for the unexpected and this will not be the last time you encounter riders not holding their line. In fact, you will undoubtedly encounter riders that are just plain reckless/clueless. You learn to read their body language and be an observer with experience, stay away from those folks, they put the whole race at risk.
@mikeshin ,glad you said you had your nose in the wind as you have passed a lot of riders and had to make up maybe 100m or more before you crashed. With hindsight try not to drift so far back to save energy for when you need it by staying in the top 20. if youre losing a few places make a conscious effort to regain your position ASAP and watch what is happening in the top dozen riders. You are strong enough to be there judging by the way you moved up.
i’d say you overlapped a wheel against a curb and put yourself in that position - looked like a phenomenal effort prior to that so heal up and don’t sweat it too much
I agree here. I’d have done the exact same thing as the OP, I’m afraid.
May I ask, does that “Masters Cat 1/4” mean that there were cat 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s in this race?
If so, I’d have been especially aware of the likelihood for squirrelly riding when the pace slows in the final 5km of the race when there are cat 4’s in the field. I would have still overlapped wheels as you did. And given that my HR would probably have been as high as yours, I’d probably have crashed too, though as I sit here in my armchair I’d like to think I’d swerve and avoid.
I’ll concede that my initial perspective was “eff that guy he is 100% at fault”. But revisiting the video was enlightening and the feedback here was super constructive. I’m new to racing and have no claim to ego.
Yep, on my first raw play, there’s no way on Earth I’d have just ridden through that gap.
The second I saw you going through that gap with the pole I clenched up. You gave yourself no out and put your safety under another riders control. Sadly, at the worst moment for you, movement happened.
For future reference, as you said, you should have very carefully braked and been ready for the worst. You would have lost a tiny bit of momentum, but still been in contention. The race wasn’t won or lost in that moment.
Sorry to hear about your bike and cheek. Luckily, that’s not too bad really. You’ll heal up and bikes are replaceable.
Thanks for posting the video, we can all learn from these moments.
These things happen - you took a chance squeezing into the gap and unfortunately this time it didn’t work out. Seems like your risk vs reward calculation was a little out of whack here?
I think everyone has pretty much covered it…you tried to squeeze into a gap that was closing and got stuck. Some of it is just racing, some of it was being where you shouldn’t have been.
What I did want to add was how to handle the situation next time. Once the rider in front of you came over, you stiffened up, which steeled doom for when the wheels crossed.
When your cross wheels and make contact, DON’T JERK THE WHEEL AWAY. In stead you want to lean into the other wheel and use it to get your balance back. The challenge in this is that it is 100% counterintuitive. You instinctually want to move the wheel away from the contact, but your center is off balance and it doesn’t work. Lean back into the wheel, get your balance centered and then pop off the wheel.
Get a couple of buddies and practice it on grass. Overlap wheels and buzz each other’s wheel. Learn how to lean into the other wheel and hold it there….get comfortable with the contact and the sound. Retrain your brain so that when it happens in a race, you aren’t freaked out and can react calmly.
I make no claims of my own riding smoothness. Only that others like me also lack it!