Originally Posted by Doge

My experience is primarily the youth (15-16) and junior (17-18), the "local" kremese and the junior UCI stage races. While most finishes are well protected, mid race, anything they can ride on goes. As you know, a sidewalk may have a 3" curb. More often than not, if the kids can jump onto the sidewalk to cut the apex, they will. Daniel was not into that level of risk, and generally did better on open road vs city. I did see a number of crashes. So while I accept the skill is high, seems the risks taken may be higher still. Not all that different than the Redlands PRT crit with 6+ crashes by pros.

Driving in Portugal with my wife I commented these drivers were crazy - they must be crashing. I went home and looked it up. Yup, they die more per mile than in the USA.

My basic view of competitive cycling is it is a European sport. They want it more and will do more to win (than us over here). That was Daniel's take away too on being a pro. He said he'd have to move to Europe - and he didn't want to. So that was settled. Way to kill a dream, but also great timing.