Originally Posted by
tyrade
I was back and to the left of the crash. Wheel crossing caused it. I'm not sure whose wheels touched, but there were 2-3 riders from the same team that led out the 3rd place finisher. They may have been slowing or migrating left after their leadout, and maybe a touch of exuberance by the guy behind them, perhaps thinking he was cdr or something and squeezing through a hole he was too big to fit through. Either way, it was inexperience, and squirrelly riding.
Botto: yes it was slow, especially when you consider that a two man break gapped us by 50 seconds after going OTF on lap 2 of 22. They stayed away for 15 miles. The whole crash thing happened in the sprint for 3rd. Maybe if more chasing had been done, everyone would have had less energy to hop all over the place. I think the entire field expected other teams to do the chasing (like, maybe the team that lost the yellow jersey to one of the guys in the break?). It was the most embarrassed I've ever felt racing a bicycle. Good learning experience though.
heh.
Watching the race, and some vid clips after it, I think that the chasing team (yellow) did two things wrong. First, they went hard up the hill. But that doesn't help anyone, it just puts people on the ropes. Second, when they were at the front, they were going maybe 25 mph, so in a race-sense they were just dwaddling.
Chasing in amateur races like Bethel requires a violent and painful effort. I've tried to sit on bridging groups in faster races and man, they totally haul butt. 35+ mph easily, on tailwind or slight downhill sections up to the low-mid 40s. My one impressive SRM reading from a P123 race had me putting in an effort just as strong as the final sprint of the 3-4s and I was only maintaining position in the field (!). 1200 watts to maintain position, holy smolies. And that was on the second lap or something (I dropped out after that because I exploded).
Doodling along at 25 mph doesn't do anything except wear guys out. Like tyrade said, the teams chasing needed to chase. Instead they just surged on the hill and sat back for the rest of the lap.
cdr