With about 100 meters to go, the sprint looks like it's a straight, head-to-head battle -
Sorry to Kevin Cross (Bike Rack), who won the race, and the Artemis guy taking 2nd place, but I did crop most of the pictures so it's easier to see the craziness. Personally, I don't know what caused the ABRT and Nature Valley rider to crash. When I saw bikes flying, I started shooting pictures rapidly. If you are reading this from my blog, as opposed to facebook, you can click on the picture to see a bigger version in your browser.
Here we go -
That one deserves a zoom in -
I know that two of the guys in this race were taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I think all of our thoughts are with them - and anyone else who's taking a bit of time to recover.
28 comments:
i was wondering why Stu Waring wasn't racing in the 4's. that explains it. You know if Stu was one of the two taken away?
I really do not know who was who...
Wow, phenomenal photos. I'm the Coppi who went down. Minor road rash, but the front fork is trashed. My thoughts are with the guys who went to the hospital - hopefully Stu is okay.
I'm the Route 1 Velo victim...broken helmet and road rash but other than no problems. Wish everyone else involved a quick recovery. Siggy, thanks for posting the pics.
Glad y'all are ok. Ken - I was the guy in the red specialized t-shirt after your race that picked up your 404 off the road. (Although I don't expect you to remember me.)
Nasty break on your fork, crazy stuff all right.
Very dramatic sequence. I hope everyone's okay.
Great shots. Here are a couple more to add to the sequence.
http://beta.sandglass.com/dawgdays/
Thanks for the additional photos. Still now clear how Stu got sideways and locked handlebars with the Nature Valley. Bummer way to start the day.
I think Stu is okay, just a ton of road rash and a trashed bike and helmet. I don't know the name of the other Latitude guy on the left, but I heard he was one of the guys that ended up going to the hospital. Incredible pictures!
Hey guys - I'm fine - a ton of road rash and a totaled frame and front wheel. My team mate Greg Gendell went to the hospital but he is ok - more importantly so is his carbon Pinarello. It happened so fast - i believe the nature guy - don't know his name - slide to his right just slightly and I hooked his elbow and the rest is carnage...and I was just using this as a warm up for the 4 race. Great pictures even though it hurts to look at them. I hope everyone heals quickly.
wow. i saw this happen at the finish, but it was so fast, i couldn't really reconstruct it from memory. i saw kevin on the inside, saw the two bikes beside him flopping violently in the sprint, and then it was explosion, explosion, explosion...
i ran out to help.
my thoughts go out to all involved. i've tasted the asphalt this season more than once and i've started racing very defensively as a result. i know i could still go down again, quite easily. it's part of racing. and that part really really sucks.
i really hope the latitude guy is ok.
Jeff BikeWorks Racing (AKA Nature Valley) Stu look at picture link http://beta.sandglass.com/dawgdays/_MG_5534.JPG and you can clearly see that your bike was sideways, while I was holding my line. I was also warming up for the CAT 4 race. My bike was damage as well and I am not able to race for the remainder of the season due to broken ribs. I would love to know how you lost control of your bike? Did you drift or unclip? Sincerely, I hope everyone is OK.
Jeff - hard way to meet - sorry to hear about the broken ribs. I want to apologize if i caused the crash but I am not certain I did. There really is no point arguing about it since it will not fix our bikes or get rid of the road rash. But I can offer you a deep discount at the bike store in Annapolis I work part time at when you start thinking about replacing your damaged stuff. From one injured brother to another my sincere best wishes on a speedy recovery and hopefully we will all see you back racing this year.
Stu- Sincerely thanks for the apology and your generosity.
Wow! i think Stu is being incredibly gracious here. If you look at the distance from each rider to the curb in the fist photo and compare that to the distances in the photo that Jeff Nalls references, it's pretty clear that Jeff moved significantly to his right. The only reason Stu's wheel is angled toward Jeff in the contact photo is that he's going down at that point.
I don't race (this is why) and you all seem to have come to terms with this, but I have to say I'm pretty put off by Jeff's comments here.
I have added 4 more sequence shots of the sprint.
http://beta.sandglass.com/dawgdays/
Sigberto, please feel free to add them to your posting on your blog.
Hope everybody heals well and quickly!
Gborana is right. Jeff is drifting to the right over the sequence, no question.
Okay guys, no more blame game on the blog. Obviously nobody meant any intentional harm here. Sh*t happens.
Let's talk about the dude in red doing a flying jet lee ninja kick instead...
WOW, this really shows why you should ride with your head up. You can see the riders with thier heads up are all heading the same way. The couple of riders looking down didn't start the turn (Hold thier line) with the rest of the group. Look at all the other photo sequences. It is racing but, we all bear some duty to other riders around us. Keep aware of your surroundings and $5k(+) bikes don't get harmed. Skin grows back, carbon fiber fails catastrophically. Also, look at the smoke coming from the rear wheel about 10 bikes back. Speddy recovery to all.
I was one of the first behind it to completely avoid it and have looked at each of the photos for a while. I agree that we shouldn't play the blame game. However, I really don't see what gborana or SD says is "clear" that Jeff is moving to his right into Stu. The road curves and if you look at the location Jeff is at throughout the sequence, he is at the same ratio between the curve and the indentation in the center of the road. I clearly don't know how it happened, but saying that there's "no question" that Jeff is drifting is wrong.
Stu, Jeff, I wish you both a quick and complete recovery and hope you're both back to riding soon.
Tim Baldwin (All-American Bicycle Club)
I agree with pumping cyclist.
Yes, pooh happens, but we all have a duty to hold a line in a sprint unless we are passing, and to sprint with our head up just in case a dog or child runs onto the course.
Now, what really bugs the heck out of me is all the crying about broken equipment. Be happy that nobody died and that nobody suffered serious life altering injuries. Let's keep in mind that Keith Mitchell died of a heart attack in a race in 2007, and that Clark suffered one heck of a life altering head injury last year.
If you are going to cry over a broken frame, don't race on it. I keep my C50 and Cristallo in the garage on race day and race on a $650 Arte or a $700 FG Lite that I will gladly toss into the dumpster if I escape from a wreck unscathed. I'll throw the Zipp wheels in the dumpster too if I come out of it without any blood escaping my body or broken bones.
I also have no qualms about backing down from a sprint when it looks like it is going to be hairy and scary. $50 and bragging rights just isn't worth it.
Kudos to Stu for his offer and for being polite. From the pics, I have no idea who is at fault, and it could be that both were at fault. Will we ever know, and if we did would it really matter? I'm just glad to hear that nobody was seriously hurt, and when I mean seriously I mean life altering hurt.
Well, from the fotos it was a pretty impressive crash. I hope that all of you recover quickly!
Amazing sequence of photos. I'm glad that everyone came out of it relatively ok.
I'm the RT1Velo on the right behind the Artemis power lifter. I too am glad that no one died. I hope everyone heals quickly. gborana has an excellent point about not racing due to the risk.
A couple I took amongst the others here - though not so good an angle.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tsimchak/DawgDaysOfSummer2009#
Siggy - we talked briefly at one point - about having almost the same camera.
T,
Who is the BikeRack guy racing the ST02 Colnago C50? Must be nice to have money like that. My C50 will never see a race unless it is a hill climb time trial.
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