Originally Posted by
globecanvas
It matches my experience, at least in masters fields as compared to 4/5 fields. Last year in a 40+ field somebody overlapped wheels while fumbling with a bottle and went down right in the middle of the pack on a long straightaway. Nobody else went down. I was behind and just to one side, my buddy was directly behind and bunny hopped him. What I really enjoyed was that nobody even commented on it, we all just rode on. One of his teammates dropped off to make sure he was OK and paced him back on, with the help of a moto ref.
That's great, but I'm not sure what it proves. That your friend can bunnyhop a downed rider, I guess? Good for him - I doubt most would be able to pull this off. I've never done a Masters race, but I have done other open category (1-4) races, and my impression was not of great smoothness and experience but of great sketchiness and fear. There are lots of inexperienced racers in most any open field, and age doesn't count for much when you're a n00b, IMO. I kind of hate those open fields, because they're mostly ok, at the front, but with so many guys mixed in who are inexperienced and are turning themselves inside out just to stay on the wheels at speeds they simply aren't accustomed to, it gets scary. And the further back you are in the field, the worse it gets. I think the idea that Masters fields are safer might have held water ten or fifteen years ago when many more had been racing for years or decades. Today, with so many new racers being 40+, I'm not so sure.