Yesterday I rode a prestigious elite classic in Holland. 120 riders lined up to start, including the current leader in the continental tour, Bobbie Traksel.
Right after the usual insane "neutral" start, (where 100 riders all try to ride at the front at the same time) the race hit the open road, and the speed went up to nudging 60 km/h.
After about 2 minutes of race I was in the tail of the peloton moving up the inside left when suddenly there is a massive pile up when riders just ahead of me rode into an old man in a car, who had somehow driven onto the course. Several guys hit the car head on at full speed, and I saw a bike totally come apart. I knew I was a goner and unclipped my pedals and aimes for the grass verge, ending up going hard over the bars and into a ditch.
Straight away I'm back up trying to reengage with the peloton with a small group of other bloodied riders, but with the peloton going that fast, there was no way we could get back on, especially as the anal race rules don't allow drafting behind the team cars.
So after 5km of team time trialling at 55, dodging support cars the jury car approaches and chucks us out the race.
I am extremely *****d off about this and immediately I began blaming the race organisers for not only causing this crash but then ensuring that the affected riders have no chance of staying in the race. If I was on a race jury and through a fault of the organisers a dangerous crash occurs in km 1 of a 180km race i would be strongly minded to re-neutralise the race to ensure the injured riders can be treated, equipment can be replaced, and the fallen riders can get back into the peloton before hostilities reopen. At professional races the riders willingly wait for the fallen crash victims in a sitation where sitting up would not affect the race result (ie. the peloton is all together) but you can't expect that from overexcited amateurs who just want to ride everyone off their wheel. Hence, my view that the race directors need to intervene.
Every week here half my team are out of the race due to crashes in the first 15 minutes of 4 hour races, and it's starting to affect morale.
I'd be interested to hear from other riders, jury members, race organisers and spectators to see what people think about this kind of thing.
Right after the usual insane "neutral" start, (where 100 riders all try to ride at the front at the same time) the race hit the open road, and the speed went up to nudging 60 km/h.
After about 2 minutes of race I was in the tail of the peloton moving up the inside left when suddenly there is a massive pile up when riders just ahead of me rode into an old man in a car, who had somehow driven onto the course. Several guys hit the car head on at full speed, and I saw a bike totally come apart. I knew I was a goner and unclipped my pedals and aimes for the grass verge, ending up going hard over the bars and into a ditch.
Straight away I'm back up trying to reengage with the peloton with a small group of other bloodied riders, but with the peloton going that fast, there was no way we could get back on, especially as the anal race rules don't allow drafting behind the team cars.
So after 5km of team time trialling at 55, dodging support cars the jury car approaches and chucks us out the race.
I am extremely *****d off about this and immediately I began blaming the race organisers for not only causing this crash but then ensuring that the affected riders have no chance of staying in the race. If I was on a race jury and through a fault of the organisers a dangerous crash occurs in km 1 of a 180km race i would be strongly minded to re-neutralise the race to ensure the injured riders can be treated, equipment can be replaced, and the fallen riders can get back into the peloton before hostilities reopen. At professional races the riders willingly wait for the fallen crash victims in a sitation where sitting up would not affect the race result (ie. the peloton is all together) but you can't expect that from overexcited amateurs who just want to ride everyone off their wheel. Hence, my view that the race directors need to intervene.
Every week here half my team are out of the race due to crashes in the first 15 minutes of 4 hour races, and it's starting to affect morale.
I'd be interested to hear from other riders, jury members, race organisers and spectators to see what people think about this kind of thing.