garysol1 

How do we know that rider #2 didn't take out rider #1?

roadfix

That rarely happens.....and in most cases, rider #1 does not go down, in case of wheel overlap, for instance. Rider #2 in this case becomes rider #1. ....unless some one in front of them has trouble holding his line and causes the rider behind him to swerve, taking everyone behind him down....therefore, it's sometimes difficult to determine exactly who was at fault.....rider #1 or the guy in front of him...?....

auk

I find that large amounts of cursing is required.

As to blame, you finally find solice in the fact that the occasional f-up is part of group rides. Even the pro teams during training rides are not immune to it. Get over it and keep riding.

sogood

Well, even TdF bunches stack. What do you have to complain about?

Either ride solo, pick your partners or be more defensive.

BTW, doesn't your club membership include insurance for this kind of accidents? Our club membership has insurance that covers for this kind of mishaps.

frischtr

I have never even heard of this...

sogood

Ok, that insurance must be an Australian license feature.

Steev

Can't comment on the US, but club insurance in Canada is only personal injury coverage. Never heard of any-one claiming, but I guess it happens.

patentcad

But of course. That would be the measured and mature response. Wait unti AFTER school, and do it by the bicycle rack.

JayC

Erm.. the NCBC here has insurance. I dont see any details about it on their website but its been mentioned a couple of times. I'll have to ask for some more details about this and report back.

https://ncbikeclub.org/

Stallionforce

I love all the replies suggesting it was the fault of the OP.

Yeah, I'm in the "More info needed" camp at this point.

Beating the crap out of him can't hurt though. This is bare minimum just as an initiation, actually. This is a skinhead cycling club you're in, right?

Jet Travis

I've watched people like you "fall with every category." Decided that wasn't the life for me.

pde

Blame... Blame is for God and small children.

-Papillon

screamtone

My club has some sort of insurance also. Non-members have to sign waivers to go on club rides. I'n not sure what it cover either, but the ride captains act like it's pretty serious business. That's something to look into, definitly.

kensuf

At any rate, my "should we beat him up" comment was in jest as I was feeling a bit punchy and sore this morning when I woke up.

The cause was a wheel overlap in a double paceline. "Rider #1" was on the outside and overlapped the wheel of the rider in front of him. He went down. The guy immediately behind him and to my left ("rider #2") went down and bounced in front of me. I was on my way into the grass on the side when rider #2 bounced in front and I went airborne when hitting him, landing on my head and shoulder. Rider #4 was behind #2, wound up hitting #2 and landing in the middle of the road breaking his collarbone.

I was at the back of the pace line with one other guy as I had just rotated out of my pull.

The guy who caused the accident was very apologetic about it after the fact. In my case, I've got a "type 2" (or stage 2 or class 2, I don't remember the exact terminology) AC seperation and have been referred to an orthopedic doc and will be doing rehab. Rider #4 had a broken collar bone and will be out for awhile.

C'est liet vie.

Ken

sprcoop

And don't forget dogs. C'mon, you know you've ripped one and blamed the dog! - sprcoop

patentcad

NCBC does sound supiciously like a cable TV network.

San Rensho 

Sounds like an honest mistake/ lapse of judgement and since he was apalogetic and took responsibility for his actions, I would leave it at that. I would, however, keep an eye on him in the future to make sure it was just a mistake and its not a case where he hasn't mastered rule number 1 of riding in a pack, never overlap wheels.

I wanted to kick a riders butt once. It was a lower cat race. The pack was strung out approaching a fast left hander. Everyone lined up on the right side of the road at the approach to the corner. Some idiot takes a flyer down the left side of the road and goes straight in the corner. I saw it coming, knew he was going to take some guys out and sure enough, he broadsides a guy two ahead of me, he goes out, takes the guy out in front of me, I try jumping over the guy that fell in front of me and land on his bike. He's in the small chainring (mistake) and I gash my leg open on his big chainring. Twenty stitches.

I was pissed. My teamates said I was swearing before anyone even crashed.

merlinextraligh

C'est liet vie I think is in fact the answer. Loosely translated to **** happens.

This is the risk of riding with a group. If the guy doesn't understand what he did wrong he needs a little gentle talking to. However, I be the odds are pretty good he knows exactly what he did wrong.

And if you're being honest,this could happen to anyone ( admittedly its more likeyto happen to some than others)


Given that the guy simply messed up, without doing something outrageous, I really think it goes in the stuff happens category.

C'est liet vie

ElJamoquio

If you do decide on this course of action, make sure you don't u-lock your new Zipp 404's in the rack before the fight.

Godwin

ummm... C'est la vie?

I hope I'm not being a grammar nazi, but if I am, that's life.

banerjek

It doesn't appear to be so much about fault as blame.

People sometimes screw up. In pacelines, mistakes often cause crashes for the simple reason that people don't have time to react. If the OP has problems with this, he should shouldn't ride in pacelines.

wrote4luck

I got run off the road on Saturday by someone in my local ride, but I didn't go down. Things happen, just gotta put up with it sometimes.

FIVE ONE SIX

mistakes happen, and even experienced riders make them, so don't take for granted that the person that made the mistake was some noob that shouldn't ride anymore. the bottom line is that it's part of the sport, and if you ride long enough something like this is going to eventually happen to you, learn from it and move on.

good luck with the recovery...

urbanknight

+1 best answer yet!

patentcad

Hunt him down and KILL him like a dog.

Then post about it here.

By the way, beating up the guy wouldn't be a 'failure of post crash ettiquette'. That's called 'felony assault'. But I'm sure you'd do just fine in prison being a hard core street tough bike weenie and all.