Vicelord

First and foremost, I accept full responsibility for my crash, and recognize that losing concentration was my own fault.

I biffed pretty hard last night on a rocky descent, probably going about 12-15mph in the dark on Trail 100 here in Phoenix. Broken pinky, bruised and scraped all over my body, but overall no injuries... I guess I got lucky.

Was headed down the descent and chose the middle line because it looked like a little more fun than the smooth sides, and out of the corner of my eye I see another group of riders stopped on the side of the trail worshiping my group screaming "we're not worthy" just being goofballs. Well, I made a mistake and looked up at them for a second (about 50 feet ahead of me) and when I looked back down I was already slamming into a rock that I would have either gone around or jumped over. Immediately took flight and in slow motion had time to plot my fall. Of course I was told it all happened in less than a second, but it felt like 10 seconds from saddle to rocks.

I'm absolutely confident had these guys not been screwing around yelling at us like cheerleaders, I would not have gone down. Is what they were doing generally frowned upon? Again, I know that ultimately have to know how to tune things out like that, but I am just curious if that is usually neck wringing worthy behavior.

What I know was improper etiquette, is only one out of the four of them actually got off his bike as I crashed less than 15 feet from them. He went over and picked up my bike (I was already up and cursing up a storm) and untwisted some cables while I was disoriented. The other guys all just stood around asking me if I was on MTBR.

After getting cleaned up:

corvuscorvax

Doesn't sound to me like these guys were doing anything especially wrong. They were just being friendly (perhaps in a fashion which you found somewhat irritating), but they weren't creating a hazard.

A broken pinky is "no injury"?

ed 

Crashing is just part of riding. Cheering on a brother-rider as he eats dirt is all in good fun.

telebianchi

If you weren't such a slippery pig you would not have crashed.

Dudes cheering you on -- good fun.

Dudes standing around staring at you after you wiped out -- hey, at least 25% of them helped out; probably matches the general population if you tripped on a curb crossing Main St. and spilled your grocery sack on the road.

pablosnazzy

people yell at you from the side of a trail in a race all the time, are they wrong? no, they are not, and neither were the guys being goofballs. it's biking, not golf. you don't have to be quiet.

as for helping you out, it's nice when people help, but there is no real requirement. bad etiquette would be to run up and kick you while you are down, or take your stuff. when we crash, we don't help each other out, especially if we know it's not a serious injury. we just stand there and say "dude, you ok?" the only real improper etiquette in the whole story is bringing up mtbr.

trail 100 is super awesome fun by the way. but you know that cause you live there.

Vicelord

Pablosnazzy, yes it is great fun.

I just felt like the last thing I would hve done after watching someone eat it would be staying on my bike and staring at them.

YamiRider1316

I have also wondered about this but from the other side. A friend and I went out to take some footage of an unofficial downhill race. We took up spots along one of the most technical spots of the trail to get some good footage. Though i wasnt yelling things at the riders as they passed it did occur to me that i might be a bit of a distraction. I ended up asking one of the riders if we were hindering their riding especially after he took a pretty nice spill right in front of me. His response was that the biff was his own fault, that its cool people are coming out to support and if i could email him the footage. So i would say focus on the trail and not on those camping out on it. But then again, if i was bombing down a line and people were yelling at me it would be hard not to look up and often thats all it takes. As far as them just standing around after you fell and not trying to offer some assistance thats a bit of a dick move. Just my 2 cents.

scyclops

+1

dminor 

The guys at Transition Bikes were kind enough to give pointers in proper trailside heckling:

corvuscorvax

True. They should have asked if you had any Grey Poupon.

scyclops

Now that's funny.

corvuscorvax

Awesome.