merlinextraligh

I thinks its probably lower than might be perceived from reading race reports here. People tend to write reports when something noteable happens, a win or high placing, perhap getting dropped in a dramatic fashion, particularly new racers, and crashes.

People don't tend to make much note of "rolled in with pack, rubber side down"

So, I thought I'd try an adimittedly unscientific poll.

For me, the answer is 2 crashes in 67 races (as far back as is on my current race resume). One was a flat tire in a turn in a crit. Other was a minor collision in to a pileup in front of me.

kensuf

1 crash while racing. I have no idea how many races, maybe 50 to 70?

2 crashes on group rides.

1 crash solo.

I also fell off a computrainer once. Seriously.

Beaker

Great post. I don't have enough starts to add meaningful stats to your poll (4 x cat 5 starts, 1 of them was a hill climb, 0 zero crashes to date), but the point is a good one.

The last race I did was a tight, technical crit that included a 180 hairpin and a chicane. I scoped the course out ahead of time and knew what the challenges were - interestingly there were a couple of posts on BF ahead of the race along the lines of "you'd be crazy to consider racing that one, it's a guaranteed crashfest". I preferred listening to the feedback of other riders I knew who'd actually raced it in prior years, and concluded you've got to tune out the noise from the nay sayers, learn from but don't dwell on the crash posts and just get out there.

carpediemracing 

I raced about 45 races a year for about 10 years. I did 35-ish races a year for about 10 years. And less than that for 5-6 years (first year just did 4 of them, but most slower years I did 20-25 races). I crashed maybe 10-20 times in races, maybe 10 or less where I had any kind of injury (like road rash that required more than a few normal bandaids). There were crashes where I got up and nothing had happened to me and I time trialed for the rest of the race.

So 10 crashes in 900 races, so 1%. Double it in case I missed a dozen crashes, so 2%.

I crashed 2x in the last 15 years, broke my first bone last year. I crashed mostly between 5-10 years into my racing "career". I crashed about 10x in training rides in the first 5 years I raced (and the years prior).

cdr

*edit* I crashed < 3%, not > 3%.

merlinextraligh

^ I kind of f'd up the poll, putting the carrots backward.

ericm979

I've ridden 75-100 races including the infamous Fremont Twilight crit series and not crashed in a race. But I've made up for that by having two fairly serious crashes on group training rides (broken tailbone, smashed in teeth). There's been plenty of almosts in races- getting bumped into ditches or running into them because I was looking at the riders ahead and not at the road, locking bars, and bunny hopping crash victims. But I have managed to stay on two wheels so far. I tend towards caution, probably a legacy of street motorcycling (where I have not crashed in some 30 years of riding).

Most riders in races are paying attention but they relax in group rides, which is what makes them dangerous.

wanders

How would you count 3 crashes in one race?

Stupidity?

It started raining 10 minutes in and I slid out on the same corner 3 laps in a row.

The only occurence in ~25 races.

Metaluna

While I hope you weren't hurt, I am relieved to hear it. I thought I'd go down in history as the only person ever to do that .

curiouskid55

At least once a year. Almost made it through last season and crashed on the back stretch of lap 1 at manhattan beach.

Creakyknees

60 starts last year, 1 crash, quite minor, got up and raced again. Rolled a tubie on a borrowed wheel. Lesson: don't borrow tubies.

That's 2009.

Counting all my races ever, including Road, track, MTB and CX, it's maybe 2 minor falls a year on average.

/ In my experience, rallies and fast group rides are far more dangerous. One of the local shop ride Saturday morning hammerfests averaged at least one rider down every single weekend. I stopped doing that one.

tspek

I'm not sure you can buy salt grains large enough for this poll.

deathshadow60

I've only had two major bike crashes in the three decades plus I've been riding, both were as an adult.

The first I borrowed a relative's bike, and failed to give it a safety check. Was going down a long steep hill, hit a bump, and the front wheel CAME OFF. Tire went right, bike went left, I went straight. Came down on the front forks with my right arm locked, turned my elbow into a bag of pea gravel. They had to remove 2" from the bottom of the humorus, half the radius and about 3" of my ulna and replace it with metal parts and a ball joint. I had full function of the arm back after about eight months... that would have been... Eh, 1998? Got a great scar from that one.

My second crash was more recent - about six months ago when some snot nosed punks from out of state decided it would be funny to open their car door to see what happened at a stop light. I managed to swerve to miss the door, but immediately clipped the right pedal on the curb. They got out to try to start beating on me for god knows what reason, which is when my baton came into play sending two of the three to the hospital, and the third (driver) to jail for outstanding assault warrants. Thankfully Police around here know me as an upstanding citizen and have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to dirtbags - which is why those types of incidents are unheard of unless it's someone from out of town at fault. (usually kids visiting kids since this is a college town and Keene State isn't known as Kegger U for nothing)

Completely twisted the right pedal so it was at a 20 degree angle to the crank, bent the ashtabula a bit and popped two spokes - I put a cheap set of pedals on it as a standby until I could afford repairs - which is why I'm doing my spring rebuild as new cranks and a relacing with new rims. I'm having a pro do the lacing as my hands shake a bit too much nowadays to handle that myself anymore. Hopefully my rebuild will be done sometime this week when/if they get back to me with my wheels done.

Those are my two crashes - not bad for some 30+ years of riding; but apparently if I'm gonna crash, I crash big.

teetopkram

Zero crashes in 2009 (25 races), 2 so far in 2010 on my new bike (10 races)...including the latest a face plant in a technical crit that has me looking like Jens Voigt after last year's TdF crash and out of racing for a couple weeks at least.

^oZ

3rd year on a road bike, 2nd year racing. Never crashed it.

I do crash my other bikes regularly, maybe need to race harder

ljrichar

When's KC going to click on the 100% option?

Too soon?

mattm

Probably shouldn't talk about it, but in ~25 races last year and one this year, I've seen/heard about 10 crashes, seen two ambulances called, but have stayed upright. So far.

I'm not so worried about hitting the deck - it's more about being run over by 30+ bikes afterwards....

Had one close call in a crit last year, final straightaway and a guy trying to sprint (head down) hits a road turtle and goes down, bringing the guy behind him down. I go to the side, and so does one of their bikes - I did a mini-bunny-hop off his front tire as the bike was sliding across the ground, and finished the sprint (for 15th).

palookabutt

0 crashes in 8 time trials. (Yes, a very small sample. )

I've watched 12 crits (cat 3, pro/1/2, collegiate A/B) and saw crashes in 7 of them. 2 required helicopter medevac. The odds per rider were low, but the odds per race were high.

save10

ronde de brisbeen? I slept through that one.

WCroadie

Sorry for your crashes but they were not in races like the OP asked.

In the past 3 years I've done ~100 mass start races I've crashed 4 times. Seen many more crashes, but based off of another post I went back through the races I did last year and there were actually less crashes than I would have guessed.

Last year there were some real nasty crashes, my good friend broke his hip, my teammate was airlifted from a race and did not wake up for 2 days, but most people walked away with road rash. I crashed pretty good and got some real nasty road rash.

Keep the rubber side down!

waterrockets 

One race crash, 1994.

Seems I can f**k myself up just fine in training though.

Quijibo187

no crashes. one close call that ended up in me needing to dnf for mechanical reasons.

EKO

Counting only USAC sanctioned races, I'm 1 for 3.

merlinextraligh

Thus far, it would seem fair to say, that if you race enough you're likely going to crash at some point, but its also likely to be very infrequent.

The poll doesn't address injuries, but it would also appear that the odds of serious, certainly permanent, injuries, are also pretty low, with the majority of crashes resulting in a bit of road rash.

gbot

As someone who's looking forward to my first road race in a couple weeks, this is obviously something I've pondered (but not something i'm overly worried about).

I've been downhill skiing for close to 30 years. Never had a serious crash/accident. Fallen down many times, lots of 'yard sales', worst thing that ever happened was a chipped tooth and the occasional bruised hip. Not counting the many cases of black toe. I've had cyclist friends tell me they would never get into skiing because of the danger involved.

All depends on your perspective I guess. If I can ski aggressively for decades on end then I can race a bike. The odds of something 'actually seriously bad' happening are probably similar.

botto 

only freds talk about crashing.

you've been informed.