"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - First crash :(

Today I was racing in the Tour di Via Italia Criterium in Windsor Ontario. For my race, the field was made up of Cat 4/5 and Masters 1/2. After about 11 laps of 20, I was in pretty good position, feeling ok. The course was one big square. After the 3rd turn, on a semi long straight, I was towards the front of the pack. Out of nowhere the guy on the left of me swerves right and jams on his brakes. There wasn't anyone off the front, nor anyone going for it, so if this person was blocking it was for no reason. I end up slaming into the side of him. I managed to stay up and had a few people yell good save (I think my left foot unclicked also). I catch my wits and to get back with the pack. I sprint hard and get back to about mid pack. Looking down, my wheel was pretty out of true, I flip my caliper all the way open but it still rubbed hard, but I kept going. Looking down at the speed, we were moving at about 28mph on the back straight, and I am basicly doing it with my front brake one. I'm spent, I finally say screw it, and drop off the back. My day was done. Pissed off, I coast back towards the finish line and get on the sidelines to see how the race pans out.

I'm racing tomorrow, so I'm hopeing that it will go over a little better

That's too bad, I read the title and the first sentence and felt like s***. Luckily, I wasn't a part of your accident since I was in the Masters 30+/Cat3's/Juniors.

Go get em tomorrow.

Today I was racing in the Tour di Via Italia Criterium in Windsor Ontario. For my race, the field was made up of Cat 4/5 and Masters 1/2. After about 11 laps of 20, I was in pretty good position, feeling ok. The course was one big square. After the 3rd turn, on a semi long straight, I was towards the front of the pack. Out of nowhere the guy on the left of me swerves right and jams on his brakes. There wasn't anyone off the front, nor anyone going for it, so if this person was blocking it was for no reason. I end up slaming into the side of him. I managed to stay up and had a few people yell good save (I think my left foot unclicked also). I catch my wits and to get back with the pack. I sprint hard and get back to about mid pack. Looking down, my wheel was pretty out of true, I flip my caliper all the way open but it still rubbed hard, but I kept going. Looking down at the speed, we were moving at about 28mph on the back straight, and I am basicly doing it with my front brake one. I'm spent, I finally say screw it, and drop off the back. My day was done. Pissed off, I coast back towards the finish line and get on the sidelines to see how the race pans out.

I'm racing tomorrow, so I'm hopeing that it will go over a little better

If he was blocking, he was doing it wrong.

Good news is you stayed upright. Coulda been a lot worse! Good luck on the next time around.

the field was made up of Cat 4/5 and Masters 1/2.

Holy crap.

Holy crap.


Seriously, some of the masters regulars around here regularly rip the legs off smaller P1/2 fields...I can only imagine the destruction they'd unleash on a 4/5 field :eek:

Average speed ended up being 26.3 MPH according to my computer, asmallsol.

And it said the race was only 35 km long (race flyer said 40 km), so my calibration might be pretty far off.

I'm honestly surprised there wasn't more carnage. Kudos to asmall for keeping the rubber on the road. I think I was only two-three guys behind him at the time, so he probably kept me off the asphalt.

Which Masters field was it? 45+?
How bad of a hurt did they put onto you guys?

In better news, my coach says that if I'm especially crafty, I could probably upgrade to Cat 3 by the end of this month!

1) Blocking does not involve the use of brakes.
2) You didn't crash, unless I missed the part about you hitting the pavement.
3) That said, good job keepin' 'er upright.

My most recent near-crash experience was at SuperWeek, after my break had been reabsorbed by the field with ~4 (of 45) laps to go. Some d-bag high school kid decided to change his line coming out of the corner, and the sweet, sweet music of rubber meeting rubber greeted my ears. Muscled 'er back in line, and then ruined a family picnic on the last lap.

^^^

better family picnic than family jewels

^^^

better family picnic than family jewels

True. But I almost ran over a 4 year old and a puppy (ran over the leash between them) and went directly between two tables of people in their front yard.

Usually in a criterium you can get a wheel change and a free lap for an incident like that. Great job keeping on your feet, and as was said before, blocking has nothing to do with swerving and hitting your brakes.

Usually in a criterium you can get a wheel change and a free lap for an incident like that. Great job keeping on your feet, and as was said before, blocking has nothing to do with swerving and hitting your brakes.

Real blocking is so smooth that most people >10 back don't realize it's going on. It's taking a pull in the line, time after time, gradually slowing the pace indiscernably. Holding that pull five seconds too long. Chasing down secondary breaks and not pulling through. Throwing homie up the road a bone and saving him a second here, a second there. Being a nuisance without causing trouble.

Real blocking is so smooth that most people >10 back don't realize it's going on. It's taking a pull in the line, time after time, gradually slowing the pace indiscernably. Holding that pull five seconds too long. Chasing down secondary breaks and not pulling through. Throwing homie up the road a bone and saving him a second here, a second there. Being a nuisance without causing trouble.

Nice description of blocking. I actually really like doing it. It's the head games and the frustration on the faces of the other riders that makes it so much fun. Oh yeah, and helping my team mate stretch the gap a few extra seconds at a time!

You know you're really doing a good job if people start hitting you!;)

Weeeeeehaaaaaaw!

Usually in a criterium you can get a wheel change and a free lap for an incident like that. Great job keeping on your feet, and as was said before, blocking has nothing to do with swerving and hitting your brakes.

Yea I know, however I only have one totally functioning wheel set at the moment. I just stepped up to a 10spd setup, so I need to buy another cassette, along with fixing my older Dura Ace wheel that I popped a few spokes while in a sprint. I know being broke is a crappy excuse, but whatever. Needless to say, you need to have multiple sets of wheels to be able to have a spare set in the paddocks.

Hate to break it to you, that wasn't your first crash. To paraphrase from Hoops, no blood no crash.

How was the crowd in Windsor? Usually pretty good down the home stretch. Let us know how Cadeaux goes today. Is it still on the bumpiest roads on the face of the planet?

Hate to break it to you, that wasn't your first crash. To paraphrase from Hoops, no blood no crash.

How was the crowd in Windsor? Usually pretty good down the home stretch. Let us know how Cadeaux goes today. Is it still on the bumpiest roads on the face of the planet?

The crowd in windor was pretty good. Lots of screaming fans, from the entry of turn 4 all the way to turn 1.

As for Cadeaux, the race got moved from detroit due to construction to the Palace of Arburn Hills, only to be moved about a mile away to an industrial parkway. I would love to tell you how it went, however, my damn cell phone alarm took a **** on me this morning and ended up waking up 20 minutes before the start of my race (which I'm an easy 50 minutes away from the Palace) I then tested my alarm and set it for a minute past the current time. When it went off, the lights on it flashed, but no noise came out. Guess the bike gods are angry at me for some reason + I now need to buy a new cell phone or alarm clock before tomorrow so I can make it to work :(

Today's race-road wasn't bumpy at all. Actually, pretty good pavement. They either moved it or re-did the roads.

And we all know that asmallsol was really slacking today. "Sure, sure. Alarm clock failure. Uh-huh."

The rough course was with the start/finish in front of the Cafe. Was also one of the longest 1/2 crits on the calender, used to get a lot of Canadians over. A fun ride.

Moved it, then. This was in an industrial park.

The windsor crowds are usually larger, lots of fans went to the Indy cart race in Detroit.

shame i missed that race.....but why were the masters 1/2 in with the 4/5's?

sadly when you race with 4/5's you have to expect someone is going to just ride right into you

shame i missed that race.....but why were the masters 1/2 in with the 4/5's?

sadly when you race with 4/5's you have to expect someone is going to just ride right into you

Im sure the Masters riders were real happy with that arrangement.:rolleyes:

Crashing is part of riding. Welcome to the Club.