Crash management, or not.

[HenryA]

Don't know if this has been around here or not:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2kFxki1F0

Looks like it all worked out in the end, but where are the corner marshals? No one in position to slow the riders before the blind turn.

Alternately, the Moto Commissaire may have done a fortunate (intentional or not?) job of blocking for the downed riders.

Kinda hard to tell.

[nooneline]

Some of the race staff, I forget who, posted some good stuff on the internet about this.

The gist of it was - holy crap, it's really hard to get a sense of the scope of the problem and communicate it to the finish line, to both motos, to the pace car, AND to the field - all in the span of basically thirty seconds. Lap times are just over a minute at Athens and the breakaway had over 25 seconds... so, definitely a challenge.

[54ny77]

man that's a cluster of stupid proportions.

sucks for all the riders involved.

[laupsi]

couldn't they simply neutralize the race till they clean things up? seems like an obvious/much smarter solution.

[jr59]

hindsight is always 20/20


A lot of good ideas when we already know what didn't work!

Not so many in the heat of the action!

[54ny77]

exactly.

hindsight is always 20/20


A lot of good ideas when we already know what didn't work!

Not so many in the heat of the action!

[Lewis Moon]

exactly.

yep.

[MattTuck]

The racers need to use common sense also. The first time through the crash zone, when people clearly saw or heard a big part of the field get taken down... the riders should have sat up and said "we're neutralizing until it gets cleaned up"

The thing that got me was that even after they'd been through it a few times, you had riders trying to race through that section. Winning isn't that important, bro.

[EDS]

A couple of my teammates were in that race. It was a blind corner so they did not know what the situation would be and if you were on the outside there were not a lot of options available to you.

[Lewis Moon]

A couple of my teammates were in that race. It was a blind corner so they did not know what the situation would be and if you were on the outside there were not a lot of options available to you.

Was there a corner marshall?

[William]

Was there a corner marshall?

My thoughts as well, corner marshals with a yellow flag can do wonders (as long as the racers are instructed ahead of time what that means).







William

[redir]

That's why they call them the crash 1 2's. Lot's of fans lot's of glory as Phil Gaimon said Athens is a bloodbath.

[bcroslin]

A friend of mine who was there said it took them 4 or 5 laps to neutralize the race. Anyone know if that's true? He also said there was 2 guys off the front, a group chasing and a second group behind. I bet they have a corner marshal on all the corners next year.

[nooneline]

Here's the post I was referring to:

http://totalcyclist.com/service/blog/2014/04/29/athens-twilight-2014

So basically:
Yes, they neutralized the field. This took some time because it involved communicating to several motos and pacecars... which then had to communicate to the respective groups. Which is not easy to do on a tight course full of amped-up bike racers.

Yes, the racers also neutralized themselves. This took some time since there were over a hundred of them.

Worth noting:
Each lap is only 1:10. Sometimes faster. So, if you have a breakaway of 2 at 15 seconds. A peloton that stretches 25 seconds. If you think about it....there is only about 15 seconds of decision/communication time.

The author points out that many right decisions were made. The moto protected Emile; racers neutralized themselves once they realized what was happening; bystanders went around the corner to signal "SLOW" to the field. The thing about racing, though, is that you're rarely paying attention to bystanders.

[laupsi]

it's not that complicated. been in exactly two races so far this this year, both had very severe crashes, in both cases the race was neutralized instantaneously, w/out further incident. the lead car and motors stopped, the field slowed, we were told to stop racing and sit tight until further notice. the races were held in different states w/totally different officiating crews.

something totally inept occurred there!

[eippo1]

One thing that they talk about in the article is that there is a live feed that is avail. to fans to see 90% of the course, but none of them have access to it. Why not? How hard would it be to have someone watching the feed(s) with a radio to communicate to the officials/ pace car etc.? Could happen in a matter of seconds.

[HenryA]

I've seen guys in the heat of a race blow right past officials waving flags, especially a group going hard. But still a corner marshal or two coulda maybe helped out if they'd been there. (maybe helped a bunch!) Civilians on the course is a very bad idea.

And this is not just hindsight or Monday morning quarterbacking. I do hope everyone involved learned something from this. Having played most all of the parts in this kind of drama at various times, I can tell you that there is something to take away here. But there'd have to be talk about it afterwards. Or here on the net, writing about the video clip.

I posted it for discussion and hopefully for the benefit of learning without the expensive actual personal experience.

[peanutgallery]

Gene Dixon promotes shady races, this scenario is 30 years old - it is nothing new. This particular course is safe compared to some of his other clusters from over the years, everything he touches is immediately tainted

When you leave town just thank the gods you have all your skin and that he actually had your check - and it was signed. Racers in twilight is fodder for the drunks to gawk at as they bleed. Great race to skip