Road Bike Racing - neutralization?

So in the race today we had a crash a little before mid way. Guy goes down and breaks his collarbone in the inside of one of the corners of the course. Up until that point we had been holding about 27 ish. We come around the next lap and we're told we're going to be neutralized. Sure, whatever, we get a nice break. Come around again and we're still neutral. 4 laps later we're still neutral. During this time all the people who had been dropped off the back were able to latch back onto the field. We come around again and they put up lap cards for 3 to go. WTH. The last 10 minutes were just crazy with all the people who really didn't belong at the front but still had juice because we hadn't been able to do anything all race, and the race ended up turning into a track race. Pack sat together the last lap, despite me trying to initiate two moves and just cranked it the last 200 meters.

Question: Is this normal for organizers to do this? Are fields generally given extra time? I mean there must be some other way to handle this instead of cutting our race in half essentially.
neutralization

This kinda happened in our race today. A rider goes down, in the following lap a rider in a 6 man break hits him and goes down. (yes, rider #1 was still on the course after a full lap and this caused rider #2 to crash into him, wtf?). I was in a chase group of 3. We were less than 1/2 way to the break (10-15 sec back) when the race was neutralized. But in this case they took the neutralization a step further and stopped the race altogether. We sit on the start line for like 5 min. Lactic acid in the legs...mmmm. What pissed me of is how they restarted us. They gave the break a 20 sec lead and they put the chase group back with the field. WTF? They only took 2 laps from us...

After missing my pedal when I went to clip in and again loosing even more position, I was sooo done racing at that point...

If they neutralize with a break away they're supposed to keep track of who is in the break and how far up they are (and stop the race if they need to to do that).. Then when they restart they let the break roll first by the amount of time they were up, then let everyone else roll. People who are totally dropped should either be pulled or started behind the pack.

I've been in two races where that happened-- was in a break in a crit in Montreal and they stopped the race to bring fire trucks across the course to an emergency inside the course (it was in Little Italy, and closed off several residential blocks. The second was in the scratch race at track nats. Major crash (I have nice pics of me just clearing the crash by inches). There were 3 guys off the front about 8 meters and 18 laps to go. The race ended up stopped (so they could repair the track and scrape up the bodies-- 6 guys went down, one retired from the race) for longer than the total elapsed time of the race. When they restarted they let the guys in the break roll first and when they had 80 meters the started the rest of us from the rail. 18 laps of hares & hounds and they got brought back pretty fast.

They neutralized our race today...twice.

The difference is, we stopped at the S/F line each time, while they mopped up the blood. Literally.

And, the officials were able to determine who was off the back, versus who was involved with the accident. The fact that we averaged 29mph made any and all gaps very apparent, so if you were popped, you were really, really popped.

And, to make things even better, they added 5 laps onto our race, so we did 108km, or 75 laps, of glorious criterium fun, as they had several primes to give away right near the end, and they didn't fancy what would happen to people going for primes on cold legs. After the re-start, it became a 12 lap slug fest, and a break of 3 managed to get up the road, driven by two guys who will be racing on the track in Beijing.

So in the race today we had a crash a little before mid way.
The tradition continues.

Anyway, my understanding is that they have to neutralize whenever there are obstructions on the course (downed riders, EMTs, bike parts, etc.) and most promoters won't extend or delay the race for such things if they can avoid it.

saw a cat 4 crit early this year... crash on 3rd to last lap... broken collerbone. field was neutralized at the start for 5 mins. the break was given their time back and the field restarted. of course with only about 1 mile to go, the break stuck (20 something seconds ahead).

depends on the situation such as the severity of the injury, amount of room on the race, amount of wiggle room in the schedule for subsequent races, and how safe it is for the racers on the course to keep going or not. I've been in races where they've just slowed folks down on the corner in question, I've been in field where we rode along neutral, and I've been in situations where we stood/sat around for over an hour.

No matter the way the officials choose to manage such a situation, feel bad for the guy on the ground, not yourself and the rest of the field for having the race altered.

I agree MDcatV. The crashes in our race were relatively minor, however. But because the first crash caused the second, I think the officials became very cautious.

Giving the break their gap is perfectly fair. But what about a clear chase group? We had clear gap from the field (~5-10 seconds) and of the three in the chase the two were teammates with plenty more teammates in the field blocking for them/us. So, we had a great chance of staying away.

I assumed we would have our gap at the restart. Are there "rules" governing that? I'm curious because no one I spoke with really knew and the just the same number had ever seen a race completely stopped before.

I agree MDcatV. The crashes in our race were relatively minor, however. But because the first crash caused the second, I think the officials became very cautious.

Giving the break their gap is perfectly fair. But what about a clear chase group? We had clear gap from the field (~5-10 seconds) and of the three in the chase the two were teammates with plenty more teammates in the field blocking for them/us. So, we had a great chance of staying away.

I assumed we would have our gap at the restart. Are there "rules" governing that? I'm curious because no one I spoke with really knew and the just the same number had ever seen a race completely stopped before.

it would be nice to see asgelle or fatguyracer, both usac officials, chime in on their thoughts on this.

Seems that it's tough in crits to give an accurate 5 to 10 second gap given that it takes that long to get started again. probably one of those things that falls under the heading of "that's racin'".

yeah. I figured as much especially in the lower cats. The 20 sec gap they gave the break turned to 45 within a lap or two because when they started the field the break was already at +26 mph. Every second that we spent getting up to speed exponentially put them farther up...after that much hard work, its was just plain frustratin.

but it was the most fun I've had racing because it was the most interesting race I've been in.

This kinda happened in our race today. A rider goes down, in the following lap a rider in a 6 man break hits him and goes down. (yes, rider #1 was still on the course after a full lap and this caused rider #2 to crash into him, wtf?).

If I were rider #1, I would wait until I was nice and healed and then kick the **** out of rider #2. That's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard.

If I were rider #1, I would wait until I was nice and healed and then kick the **** out of rider #2. That's the most ignorant thing I've ever heard.

^^^hmmm. Jump to conclusions much?

Details: that corner is very, very tight and narrow. When he saw what was in front of him after the turn, rider #2 hit the brakes, his rear wheel locked up and slid out from under him, he skids into rider #1.

^^^hmmm. Jump to conclusions much?

Details: that corner is very, very tight and narrow. When he saw what was in front of him after the turn, rider #2 hit the brakes, his rear wheel locked up and slid out from under him, he skids into rider #1.

thats a bit different. perhaps you should have worded it differently in the first place. we were all under the impression that the guy ran into him at full speed while upright

Hi,

I've seen or heard of neutralized races being officiated several different ways as described in this thread. My personal experience has been what merckx89 described -- the whole field rides at a greatly reduced pace while medical personnel tend to the injured. Given the tight schedule at most crits, I personally have not seen races extended by any great amount once the race goes "green" again. Also, I've only seen a break given a lead if they had a significant lead (say 30 seconds or more).

As some people say, them's the breaks.

thats a bit different. perhaps you should have worded it differently in the first place. we were all under the impression that the guy ran into him at full speed while upright

meh. perhaps. I was more concerned about the OPs topic and if there were any rules governing time allowed to a chase group after the race was neutralized.

have any impression you like, I just don't like ignorant "I'd have kicked his ass" comments...

it would be nice to see asgelle or fatguyracer, both usac officials, chime in on their thoughts on this.

Seems that it's tough in crits to give an accurate 5 to 10 second gap given that it takes that long to get started again. probably one of those things that falls under the heading of "that's racin'".

5-10 seconds isn't a gap, it's a jump.

There's no way to restart a group and give guys a real 5-10 second 'gap'.

I did CHIN picnic (in Toronto) in the 80's and they stopped the race with 3 to go to bring a firetruck across the course. They lined us up and started us with 3 to go.

Major carnage that I wisely chose to stay out of.

we were Cat 3's so no-one cared. :D

^^thanks bob!

side question:
what do you guys think of the riders dangling at the end of the pack that move up 30 places on a neutral lap (say in a field of 70 or so)?

side question:
what do you guys think of the riders dangling at the end of the pack that move up 30 places on a neutral lap (say in a field of 70 or so)?

Bad Form. Like attacking in feed zone. No rules against it (as far as I know), but very stinky.