"jc6239" <
[email protected]_nospam> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> His crash was on the steep 1.5 mile descent along the side of the ski
area.
> I don't buy the 60 MPH speed the local paper claimed but 50+ is not unlikely. I guess the frost
> heaves on that section were not to blame. Vogels clipped the wheel of the rider in front of him.
> Maybe he looked
back
> just as that guy tapped his breaks to slow for the bumps. I used to ride the Longjso Crit. (10
> years and 40 pounds ago) but never did the road
race.
> However, I've ridden the course many times and IMHO it a rather insane section of pave for a pack
> of 185 rides to be taking on.
>
> I watched the circuit race and the crit. last week. Both really fun to watch after a number of
> years of no breaks to speak of.
>
> JC
>
>
I've said on this group before that I think the Fitchburg decent stinks. In the past it had lots of
cracks (running in the direction of travel) and a few nasty frost heaves. For the most part the
cracks were repaired this year. The frost heaves seem to be ever present. That said, by accounts
I've heard from people in the race and in the race caravan, the crash had nothing to do with the
road surface, but rather Henk Vogels looking backwards. I doubt the rider in front would be applying
his brakes for those frost heaves. At 50+ mph any braking isn't going to help. In my experience on
that decent. You see 'em. Then you hit 'em. There really is no time to act before hand, except to
know where they are and avoid them. I also heard that the crash was on the lower portion of the
decent, past the entrance to the ski lodge (the start). That portion of the decent has also been OK.
It was the portion between the turn off for the finish and the start that had the cracks and bumps.
I also don't think the size of the field has ever played a role in the crashes there. Things spread
out a lot. Crashes I've seen and heard about have only ever been 1-4 riders. No mass pile ups.
Wishing a speedy recovery to Henk Vogels,
Wade
