Originally Posted by
bonechilling
It's not about a waiver. I don't think that race organizers were concerned with liability, they were concerned with incompetent riders get themselves in trouble with their lack of experience and ability.
As Squid said, the field is simply too large to manage. I've seen racer organizers freak out at mass-start races of 50 riders, so just imagine 200-300.
what I find interesting though, is that alleycats have been going on for quite a while, and that one in chicago wasn't even that big if i remember right. For as high risk as it is, and as many occur, deaths and even injury seems to be actually quite low.
i'm not sure what this last stupor bowl topped out at, but it was pretty big as it always tends to be, and I'd assume the weather conditions of our races in minnesota in the winter are probably much more hazardous than most other races can come to be.
Interesting stuff to think about. It's hard for me to fathom that someone wouldn't understand that blindly running intersections and the other supposed risks that alleycats "encourage" could cause serious bodily harm.