Originally Posted by
UmneyDurak
It's going to be a mess. Don't under estimate the stupidity of drivers. I have seen people ask spectators move cones out of the way, get on a closed course and stop. While everyone screams at them to get the **** out, with pack bombing down a hill at 30+mph. I have seen marshal basically putting a foot in front of the car and stay in front of it, otherwise driver would have pulled across intersection with riders and support vehicles flying by. Unless it's a completely closed course I wouldn't risk it.
With 500 people and 30 second start times they might as well close the street. Specially if people going to be going both ways. No one is coming across without creating a dangerous situation. "Oh look police, and they are motioning for me to go! I better be an extra good driver and accelerate really, really slow!" While someone is all out effort flying towards them... in the rain.
Well, you may want to look at the course, which is available along with the rules in the link I provided above.
It is not an out-and-back, but a clock wise loop meaning all right hand turns. The only cross traffic that seems possible is on a single street that bisects both halves of the loop, so really not that much to police.
No hills to bomb, and with 30 second gaps I would imagine that any packs that develop will be of the fairly slow moving, non competitive type of riders.
What kind of events do you see these problems in? While I certainly have seen poor drivers react badly when unexpectedly encountering an event, it has not been the norm for the USAC sanctioned races I have done or the few non-series races and triathlons I have seen.