I was in the Merced criterium that Tracy speaks of. [Un?}Fortunately, I was in the first few riders through the walled section of the criterium before the crash, and barely heard it happen.

To emphasize, the crash occurred a number of riders back in the field, and this crash happened in the final 700 meters of a very, very fast criterium. It was, by the way, a field sprint for 4th, as there was an amazingly committed break of 3 up the road actually winning the race (B.McGuire, B.Bosch, and some flat-out blazer of a Cal-Giant Starberry boy).

The crash happened in a spot where guys where in the 20+ placed. And, I have to be honest, the majority of finishing race crashes I have seen over the years (and through all the categories) occur in this part of the pack. It is a part of the pack with people in no contention for the win, they just want to move up as many places as they can before the pack hits the line. They are sprinting for top 10's and top 15's.

Just an observation.

[side note and counter example: i was doing battle for position with Billy Clark (morgan stanley uber-monster) in this same sprint. Billy outweighs me in pure muscle by about 450 pounds. He is ungodly Adonis-like. We were fighting for position, but flat-out, the duel was perfectly honorable and kick-ass fun. He whooped me clean and simple (being much better at that shyte than me,... but, it shore was fun and i can't wait to do it again). And guess what ... we barely touched elbows. The fight for position in the sprint was fierce and firey ... all without a shove or hip check. That's good racing. That's safe, honorable, fun-er'n crap bike racing.]

The couple of guys who got hurt the most in the crash on Sunday both had head wounds (they are fine - Shawn O. (morgan stanley) and Stan T (emc)). While Sabine was helping Shawn into the emergency room, the message that hit me was that it was but a bit of luck and Shawn's skill that saved him from a serious neck injury. Shawn had no chance to avoid the crash and simply took a unstoppable header. I think back on that wall in the Merced crit and shake my head in frustration. There is no reason to have that finishing wall in that race course. Stupid.

The Merced crit course is (sorry Bob) a horrible and dangerous design. That finishing wall is just a bad idea and I will not race the course, as designed, again. Yes, I believe someone made an error in the pack. But no, I know nobody wants crashes like that to happen. The majority of us want only to derive fun from our "sport" (well, i would call it a game ... bunch of kids, really - is what we are).

But, there are some who play with us using a bit less judgement than is necessary and endanger us all. On January 1st of this year, Dan Plummer, our dear friend, was killed by some random tree felled from the wind. (Jesus ... he was just riding along and some tree killed him.) And we, now, freely choose to hurl ourselves down streets and alleyways at break-neck speeds for a t-shirt and bucket o' ego.

Why make it more dangerous that it already is? In the pro-boy's immortal words, "why be a hater?"

No, instead, I'm going to do everything I can to promote good sportsmanship, safe riding, and fiercely honorable bike racing. I dig it, and I think a LOT of other riders do to. I'm going to work hard to make sure no one endangers my friends in bike races. I'm going to race full gas, every single race.

mhernandez
saferWay/GAComm GlitterBoys

I'll say that the final 2 miles was in fact NUTS.

I had a few guys bump off me but at 28mph and riding the gutter its going to happen.

There was a guy in Yellow who found me after the race and told me I needed to try and not be so "squirley" after he bumped off of me since he was in the gutter and had to swerve out because of a pothole, not my fault.

I have been racing p/1/2 races for 14 years and masters races for the last 3 and thats the first time I have been accused of that kind of riding.

I still dont understand why we get 88 Masters at Snelling and only 56 at the Merced crit but your going to get hairball riding at the end of a 2 mile streatch going into the 90* Turn to the finish. Fact.

I can only hope the rider your talking about made a one off mistake and ins't doing that week in and week out.

The thing that concerns me a guy who continually gets away with shoving racers or flat threating to kick their butts.

Casey I'm sure you will be getting lots of requests for a suspension of this rider in the next few days.

MS

And just in case anyone is wondering I dont wear Yellow red and Orange. :wink:

Also people should remember USCF rule 1O6

"No rider may make an abrupt motion so as to interfere with the forward progress of another rider, either intentionally or by accident [relegation or disqualification; possible 20 days suspension is a crash results].

So if the rider can be identified ad if a crash results as a result of his actions then a complaint could be filed with USAC and the rider could be suspended for up to 20 days.

guest wrote:If he went into the gutter while at the front he did nothing wrong, he was probably just trying to put some pressure on and in a race like snelling sometimes the best place to do that is in the gutter. If he did somthing stupid then thats another story but calling him a moron isnt gonna help anybody, weve all done stupid stuff.

To clarify: guttering the peloton to screw up the draft is a perfectly acceptable tactic. To charge up on the right of a speeding field, get as far as overlapping the front 2 guys by a half wheel, and then diving hard left to within 1 ft. of the shoulder is NOT just putting pressure on. He swept the front of the field in the most stupid, irresponsible manner possible. I have 8 good years of race experience in the 1/2 fields and know the difference betwen the two. This is not an action called into question by a frustrated competitor, it didn't affect my race - it was just flat-out dangerous (witness the 3 crashed-out riders because of it). I'm hoping we can identify the guy so that I can avoid him in the future.

Tracy

If he went into the gutter while at the front he did nothing wrong, he was probably just trying to put some pressure on and in a race like snelling sometimes the best place to do that is in the gutter. If he did somthing stupid then thats another story but calling him a moron isnt gonna help anybody, weve all done stupid stuff.

No, but my apologies to the guy I ran into (in black) because of that swerve in front of us. Unfortunately there was nowhere to go but into his front wheel after he wiped out without risking taking other guys out. Good race until that point.

Jason Dunlap
Specialized Sierra Nevada