Road Bike Racing - Spectator critically injured by bike racer

About three miles from my home is a state park. Last week my wife and I were tooling around on our bikes and saw that 1/2 of the park was closed for an "event," which turned out to be a triathlon. It had just finished.

The next day, I read in the paper that a spectator at the event had been critically injured when the spectator attempted to cross the track for a better view and was hit by a triathlon bike rider at 35 mph. The paper said the spectator folded up like a rag doll and suffered severe internal and head injuries.

There were complaints that there was poor crowd control by the event sponsors.

Wow. How must that bike rider feel?? This would be a tough one for everyone.

See:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_1307091,00.html

I think spectators should be more careful in staying off the road, but then again I don't know exactly what happened in that situation. Maybe the spectator was making a stupid/dangerous move, or maybe it was a freak accident. Either way its no way good to hear someone get hurt like that.

Alrighty now. The articals headline should read, "Cyclist Injured When Ignorant Spectator Stepped Onto Race Course."
It tends to piss me off when some one does not use common sense, gets injured and blames another. This type of thing happens all to often these days because people always want to put resonsibility on some one else and not take any for them selfs. I might take sh** from some one for this but I have no sympathy for any one one who gets injured because of their own actions. If that spectator would have taken a minute, checked the course and then crossed she would probably not be in the hospital now. Some one might say "Well she could not see around the turns...", ok, heres YOUR sign. Move to a spot that allows better site and then cross.

I was horrified as I watched the TDF Stage 19 time trial. Spectators were all the way across the road, moving back at the last possible moment to make way for the motorcycle and rider. Here is a guy, Lance, trying to maintain a speed somewhere around 30 mph with the motorcycle often not more than 10 feet ahead trying to get through the crowd. That has got to wear on your nerves.

Gee....too bad for her :rolleyes:

Honestly, I could care less for morons like these...if she's too stupid/blind/dumb/fat and slow to make it across the road during a BIKE race, then that's her fault.

She knew bikes were speeding down that road and yet SHE decided to run the risk. Well, her gamble didn't pay off...snicker.

Rather shallow coverage in that article. No consideration for the cyclist at all they way it was written. Makes it sound as though the spectator was just crossing a street and all of a sudden there was a bike race going on.

It is such a disappointment when this type of mnisfortune befalls anyone. Certainly there are many who were hurt by this incident. I pray she will recover and that lessons learned will be applied to future events.

Carl

What do ya wanna bet that she or her insurance company go after the promoters with a lawsuit. What's really needed is protection against people who are too stupid to be allowed out of a padded cell.

This would include people who need warnings like "the hot coffee is hot", setting up a ladder in frozen cow ***** on a sunny day could spell trouble, and standing in front of any object moving at 35mph could be bad for your health. :irritated

There. I feel better now. A little.

Arapahoe County Sheriff's officials said the crash happened about 9:15 a.m. as Monica Herman was running across the road to get to the finish line, hoping to see her cousin finish the race.

I feel a sorry for her husband and for the cyclist having to go through all this. It is quite clear that she was there to see the race, as the above quote demonstrates. You would think that someone who is going to see a relative compete would be aware of the speeds and danger involved. She should look were she is going.


"The guy had no control. He was trying to control a mob."
So does this mean, she just crossed when everyone else decided to do so?

People act like sheep when in a group, follow the leader.

CHEERS.

Mark