Something that looks so bad in racing...

[benb]

I was just watching the video of Mark Cavendish crashing. It seems like we've seen a lot of bad crash videos lately.

Two things that seem to look really bad IMO.

1) It seems like it takes a long time for the ambulance to get there relative to most sports. They have a slight problem due to the race being stretched out on the road but it is still a long time compared to even say Auto Racing where the ambulance might still have to drive around 2+ miles of track to get to the accident. Crits != Road races but even there it seems like even at lower levels in the US the ambulance can get there faster.

2) The feeling of indifference you seem to see from other riders. Everyone keeps going, maybe teammates glance down. I get it the $$ and winning are all important but it comes off very cold compared to other sports where everyone just stops and acts like the health of their fellow athlete is the more important than the game.

I guess I'd be more cool with seeing a race temporarily neutralized & stopped when a rider goes down hard and isn't really moving... it seemed to happen in amateur racing when I was racing, at least in crits.

[earlfoss]

If a rider is down and not getting up in a crit, the race is neutralized until the rider is removed. In a road race the call is made on the fly by officials but if there's a crash there is no need to neutralize unless they will come back around the circuit and encounter the rider + emergency personnel, etc.

It's racing. Not fondo or group ride type stuff. It's competition, it's hard, and that's how it is. If you want to feel the love, don't race.

Participants are focused on racing and to fixate on a downed rider can rattle one enough to put themselves at risk. When a crash has happened in races I have been in, I hear or see it and mentally I just push it aside because the race is happening now and that's my reality. The race organizers and officials deal with the downed rider. Not every rider who goes down is hurt bad enough to need emergency removal too. If a rider is hurt badly enough to need emergency aid, I am not trained in that kind of stuff so I'll leave it to the experts. The video you are describing is a crash in a World Tour pro event that has protocols in place to deal with situations like that. Anyone can judge how effective those protocols are from their armchair but I bet response time is quicker than one might realize.

The two things you describe as looking really bad are part of racing. It's a competitive sport, not a group ride.

[benb]

So are all the other things I mentioned, and generally with higher stakes since bike racing is pretty much tiddly winks compared to other sports.

Pretty much any "ball" sport - stops the game temporarily for injuries
Auto racing - same thing
Motorcycle racing - same thing

I'm not saying you have to cancel the race or anything.. and I get it too since I raced, but it makes the sport look bad and with a lack of sportsmanship compared to just about any other competition. It's not a given that this is part of racing, it's a part of bike racing.

[Steve in SLO]

Having raced in all three disciplines you mention, cycling really is like the other two:

If on a circuit, all three are generally neutralized if full speed racing is considered unsafe to the other competitors, if not the race goes on with rare exceptions.

If on a road course, there is a higher chance that the race will continue if competitors are past the point of accident and it has no impact on their safety.

The difference is that in motorsports, the speeds and potential for further carnage is higher than in a cycling race, so events might seem to be neutralized or yellow/red flagged more often. This is likely a reflection of risk rather than a higher level of sportsmanship.

In ball sports, the injured competitor is just in the way so the other competitors have nothing to do until they exit the field of play. They therefore have the ability to hang around the injured player and appear/be concerned.

[pff]

Most sports have the notion of breaks in play built in, but bike racing does not. Why and how would you relay a message to the front that some guy may be seriously injured so out of respect for his family you should pull over and have a coffee break?

[atrexler]

Its also much easier in other sports to stop play immediate when there is an injury. In bike racing everybody is going 20-25+ mph and when there is a crash it is safest for everyone to try to continue as smoothly as possible. Think how bad it could get if the peloton suddenly slams on the brakes because there's a fall at the back.

Certainly in the pro peloton the riders aren't indifferent; though I think they understand that its a part of bike racing. If you watch interviews from guys involved in the several bad crashes in GTs this year, especially the Tour, most of them talk about how emotionally affected they were to see friends and colleagues on the ground and not moving. When Phinney crashed hard last year and was clearly not alright the next rider to come past him stopped because he could tell it was really bad. When Weylandt died in the Giro a few years ago the next stage was neutralized and like 10 guys pulled out of the race eventually. They didn't know during the stage that he didnt make it.

Its probably unique to cycling the role crashes play. No one wants to see them happen but the game goes on in almost all cases.

[benb]

Most sports have the notion of breaks in play built in, but bike racing does not. Why and how would you relay a message to the front that some guy may be seriously injured so out of respect for his family you should pull over and have a coffee break?

Didn't we use to have radios? We also have a fleet of officials in cars/motos, etc..

And I'm not sure the cycling record for carnage is all that good compared to motorsports... is it?

[tiretrax]

What I don't get is why the cars were parked on the road!

[Joxster]

There will always be crashes in bike races, 200 riders in close proximity is a risk. When you sign on there is a chance that you may be involved in a stack, as a rider I know and accept that. I've been in races that have had fatalities, one of them could not have been foreseen by any amount of risk assessment. The delay on getting an ambulance on to a circuit is where do you place the ambulance? And on a stage/road race medical support is behind the support vehicles so it takes time to get past. Bike riders get hurt, but have the balls to get back up an carry on to the finish unlike other sports......... Soccer anybody

[bikinchris]

So are all the other things I mentioned, and generally with higher stakes since bike racing is pretty much tiddly winks compared to other sports.

Pretty much any "ball" sport - stops the game temporarily for injuries
Auto racing - same thing
Motorcycle racing - same thing

I'm not saying you have to cancel the race or anything.. and I get it too since I raced, but it makes the sport look bad and with a lack of sportsmanship compared to just about any other competition. It's not a given that this is part of racing, it's a part of bike racing.

In road racing and track and field, (you know, foot races) they don't stop for runners down.

[pff]

Didn't we use to have radios? We also have a fleet of officials in cars/motos, etc..

And I'm not sure the cycling record for carnage is all that good compared to motorsports... is it?

Yes there are radios in worldtour events, but that doesn't cover all televised races. It's amusing watching commentators try to remember whether there are radios allowed, to know who to blame for tactical errors (DS or rider). But even with radios, riders frequently have ear pieces out, are out of range, etc. I think during the vuelta we got ample chance to see what happens when motos try to get in on the action.

But how aside, I still don't get the why? Pay your respects after the racing is over. As a fan, avert your eyes if you don't like the carnage. Let's not pretend that bike racing is healthy.