RIP Casey Saunders, local crit hero

[icepick_trotsky]

Not sure if anyone here knew him from the racing scene, but Casey was a fixture of the local St. Louis races and the surrounds. The fastest guy in town at road, track, and usually cx. Also a long time bike shop rat and an all around nice guy.

He died in a crit crash in Kansas City over the weekend.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article158251884.html

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ak2v9b/picture158251879/alternates/FREE_768/19424152_1942152516000205_2447848362144445513_n

https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19424504_499823373682616_2080096367318556484_n.jpg ?oh=3e06c83fa8047357989cff9022020d11&oe=59DA81AD

https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19437335_10100981310348352_4987138813852532274_n.j pg?oh=dd01de066ce575b165f3e2d88846bfc9&oe=59CEF8F4

[stephenmarklay]

Very sad.

[shovelhd]

RIP Casey. Ride on.

[MattTuck]

that is very sad.

[Luwabra]

Very sad day. I had friends in that 1/2 race. And friends on the scene assisting w medical. Terribly unfortunate and my thoughts go out to all who are grieving.

[Nags&Ducs]

That sucks. He seemed like a great guy.

I wonder how/what were the circumstances that caused him to die from the crash. Maybe it might help avoid future deaths if it was related to the barrier or course.

RIP Casey Saunders.

[coffeecake]

Tragic. I just saw him at the Glencoe Grand Prix. R.I.P.

[paredown]

So sorry to read this--none of us ever imagined this possibility while racing...

Condolences to family and friends.

[Matthew]

Man this sucks. Kind of sobering to think every time we throw a leg over our bikes we face this risk. RIP and tailwinds Casey. Matthew

[Michael Maddox]

That sucks. He seemed like a great guy.

I wonder how/what were the circumstances that caused him to die from the crash. Maybe it might help avoid future deaths if it was related to the barrier or course.

RIP Casey Saunders.

I've been trying to piece this together. Not to fuel undue speculation, but there has been mention of the metal barrier and of heavy bleeding, in separate articles. Horribly tragic, by any account.

Bless him, his family, and his friends. Bless ALL cyclists, everywhere.

[jumphigher]

Sorry to hear about his death. At least he died doing something he was clearly passionate about, as cliche as that sounds. Looked like a powerful rider from the pics..

[shovelhd]

So sorry to read this--none of us ever imagined this possibility while racing...

Condolences to family and friends.

It's unfortunately more common than most realize. I've been involved with two, both were racing accidents, not health-related.

[ultraman6970]

As an ex track racer...crashes is always a thing of luck, if that was your day there is nothing you can do. Personally had and seen nasty crashes in the track and the road and pretty much got up and continued.

Sad man... :(

[Keith A]

Wow, this is very sad indeed. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

[sw3759]

sad to hear,sad for his family.had never heard of him myself but saw the story on the velonews site yesterday.

[ahumblecycler]

As a former KC racer, I saw him race a few times in STL, and he assisted with my bike fit Feb 2014 - great guy and will be missed.

In terms of the crash, fragmented recounts from my friends suggest that it occurred when Casey opted to make an attack away breakaway group. Several spectators mentioned that someone yelled "outside, outside" when Casey launched his attack and the other racers responded. What is unclear is what actually occurred that led Casey to get tangled up with another racer and resulting in the fatal crash. Did a racer respond recklessly and tracked from his line? Unsure.

I suspect the metal barricade was a city requirement as this race was downtown KC and would have to follow city codes. When Tour of MO existed, KC required metal barricades at some locations. An alternative hypothesis is that the barricade was associated with some construction (building, no street).

I heard that it took an ambulance 10 minutes to arrive to the scene. However, it is unclear whether that contributed to his death or not. Spectators, mostly cyclists with a range of skillsets to include doctors and nurses, immediately responded to the scene, which leads me to wonder the condition of his brain following the crash.

The above is written with a heavy heart. I personally know the first person on the scene, the person who comforted the first person's daughter as she watched her dad spring to help, and the race promoter. The community is still in shock.

[benb]

Maybe it's too expensive but we probably need to get to the point where the sport starts to take some of the same precautions as motorcycle events:

Namely:

- The race needs to have an ambulance on site or following the race for races that involve huge distances like pro road races.

- Start designing barriers that are safe for riders to hit like has already happened at racetracks that can't remove the walls and install sand traps. (Inflatable barriers, etc..) The barriers that tend to get used don't seem to have safety as a goal at all, I've seen hay bales which aren't too bad, but they are usually 24-36" high so they just serve as something for the riders to flip over and land on their head. Otherwise the barriers in use are crowd control barriers, not something designed to be safe to hit on a bike at 20-40mph.

RIP

[stien]

Most events won't let racers roll out if there is no ambulance present.

I would venture to speculate that while there was one on scene, it would have had to pick its way to the site of the crash past an active race.

[pbarry]

Casey's untimely passing made me think of Nicole Reinhart, an elite U.S. track and road rider who died too soon while racing. Somehow their youth makes these losses more tragic to me. What ifs and all that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Reinhart

[buddybikes]

Don't forget Chad Young just few months ago, just 21 years old, made pro ranks - 3.95GPA mech engineering senior. I still cry for my friend (father) and family

[shovelhd]

Most events won't let racers roll out if there is no ambulance present.

Not in my experience. A medical plan needs to be in place, but an ambulance onsite is not a requirement.

[KSCycling]

I raced against Casey a few times, including both days in the Tour of KC. At the time I didn't know him as I'm new to Cat 2 races. Saturday had a short but steep climb up to the start finish. Every time up to the top of the hill there was a spectator yelling so loud with excitement "Let's go Casey! Let's GO!" I kept thinking, who is this Casey guy? He's got a nice fan following. I used that excitement to stay focused on staying/finishing with the field. That was my main goal, just to finish with the likes of guys like Casey.

Sunday Casey was a rider or 2 behind me when he went down. It happened after a sprint lap where the leaders can earn points toward the Omnium. The lap was super fast and I had to dig deep to stay with the field. But the wreck happened in turn 1 as the sprint lap was over and we were chasing. More so, I was going 30mph through the turn. There wasn't a reason to attack. Just hold on and slingshot later. It's still puzzling why it happened then and there. The turn was at the end of a straightaway, into the wind, wide, and into an incline. I can still hear the sound of the crash. It pains me to think about it. Could this have been me? There was a point where I had to avoid a racer who was just released back into the course after having what I assume was a mechanical and received a free lap. I thought for sure I was going to hit the barriers. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

Also, my wife said that after the crash the event staff began zip tying the barriers together. It was at that point I realized how it could be fatal.. ugh


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[Plum Hill]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/barriers-at-kc-bike-race-in-which-kirkwood-man-was/article_02ad6831-793a-5fa0-8d15-6df6c0d9fde0.html

[fiamme red]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article168176737.html

[earlfoss]

Not in my experience. A medical plan needs to be in place, but an ambulance onsite is not a requirement.

You are correct that a medical plan must be in place, and that an ambulance onsite is not a requirement. Your medical plan is approved by USAC, and they can require that you have one, but I can't remember when that happened for a local or even low level regional event. I don't think that having one at every USAC event is the answer. It's been said already that you can "what if" and propose mitigations all day long, and it can drive you crazy. It is terrible that the barriers weren't secured properly, and yet I can totally see how that can happen on race day. Hopefully more of a safety culture mentality enters the minds of race organizers and the USAC machinery working for them.

I wonder if USAC will revise the way they handle course approvals, medical plan approvals, and perhaps include a sort of course safety check protocol for the head ref to perform day-of prior to the first event going off.

Unrelated, but if I'm not mistaken I understand that Chad Young's accident was at least in part due to the descending position that places the majority of your weight over the front wheel? I know that in the days just after the accident a bunch of pros who were his friends posted on Twitter to call for USAC to ban that position. Putting 2+2 together, I assumed that played a role in his crash. That style of descending freaks me out. I'm a cat 1 with pretty good bike handling skills, but I just don't see the rewards for doing that outweighing the risks. I have seen others try to do it on group rides and I stay far, far away from them.