Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

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Anthony.R.Brown
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Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Anthony.R.Brown »

Is it because of the mentality of the riders ? just as there are now more car road accidents! both are based on the percentage within each group!
Jdsk
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Jdsk »

Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 3:32pmjust as there are now more car road accidents! both are based on the percentage within each group!
What data series are you describing there, please?

Thanks

Jonathan
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Anthony.R.Brown
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Anthony.R.Brown »

Jdsk wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 3:54pm
Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 3:32pmjust as there are now more car road accidents! both are based on the percentage within each group!
What data series are you describing there, please?

Thanks

Jonathan
Hi Jonathan

If we look at televised Road races from when road racing cycling helmets became compulsory,which looks like 2003 ? from the link below...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet

There was a gradual increase in the amount of Crashes ? and then when the bikes became even more advanced and faster,then again there was an increase,and now which is the topic of this thread there are Crashes in almost all races ?
Before the above when riders never used helmets there were not that many Crashes ?
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Anthony.R.Brown
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Anthony.R.Brown »

Sport Grows, and Grows More Perilous

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html
Last edited by Anthony.R.Brown on 18 Apr 2021, 1:30pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Madness, cycling fast downhill! See you at the Wobbley Wheelers hillclimb, that is real sport where one has trouble going too fast
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Jdsk
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Jdsk »

Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 5:10pm
Jdsk wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 3:54pm
Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 3:32pmjust as there are now more car road accidents! both are based on the percentage within each group!
What data series are you describing there, please?
Hi Jonathan

If we look at televised Road races from when road racing cycling helmets became compulsory...
Thanks. I thought that you were talking about car road accidents in general, not about car crashes in bike races.

Jonathan
Last edited by Jdsk on 15 Apr 2021, 7:57am, edited 1 time in total.
Postboxer
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Postboxer »

Is it stronger pelotons so there are more riders in the bunch, stronger teams, more sprint trains?
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foxyrider
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by foxyrider »

There have always been crashes in RR's, in fact when i was racing in the late 70's/early 80's there would be an off of some kind in almost every race, whatever the level. Most weren't that serious in terms of injuries but i've been in races where a flick of someones wheel has had most of the riders on the deck.

Could it be that with more and better coverage of races, we are more aware of the incidents?
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Anthony.R.Brown
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Anthony.R.Brown »

foxyrider wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 8:01pm There have always been crashes in RR's, in fact when i was racing in the late 70's/early 80's there would be an off of some kind in almost every race, whatever the level. Most weren't that serious in terms of injuries but i've been in races where a flick of someones wheel has had most of the riders on the deck.

Could it be that with more and better coverage of races, we are more aware of the incidents?
Could be ?

But a lot of riders think there are more Crashes now as they say in the link...

Sport Grows, and Grows More Perilous

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html
Jdsk
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by Jdsk »

foxyrider wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 8:01pmCould it be that with more and better coverage of races, we are more aware of the incidents?
It could. And memory is fallible. Sometimes you have to count.

Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 5:13am Sport Grows, and Grows More Perilous

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html
Duff link, probably should be:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html

Jonathan
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by VinceLedge »

The article only really reflects peoples opinions on whether there are more crashes or more injuries and then people theorizing possible reasons.
More amazing is that the UCI doesn't keep statistics on crashes so no one knows whether road racing is more or less dangerous that it was previously.
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by mjr »

Jdsk wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 8:00am
Anthony.R.Brown wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 5:13am Sport Grows, and Grows More Perilous

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html
Duff link, probably should be:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/spor ... anger.html
Yes, OP is repasting from another forum.
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by rareposter »

VinceLedge wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 9:39am The article only really reflects peoples opinions on whether there are more crashes or more injuries and then people theorizing possible reasons.
More amazing is that the UCI doesn't keep statistics on crashes so no one knows whether road racing is more or less dangerous that it was previously.
Define "crash" for statistics purposes?
You could end up with a database of literally every single rider who fell off in every single race and it'll vary from something innocuous (like a lone rider off the back clipping a kerb and remounting with nothing other than a graze) to something as seen in yesterday's Tour of Turkey stage finish which brought most of the peloton to a stop. There was no clear cause in that one either, it'd be almost impossible to attribute it to a single rider starting the domino effect.

Add in severity of injuries (or other aspects like breakages of bike/equipment), involvement (or otherwise) of any other race vehicle, weather, state of the race (cruising along vs jostling for position), road layout and road furniture etc - you risk just gathering a vast array of data which doesn't actually show a lot.

There are already accident reports that get filled in by Commissaires after each stage detailing some of the above and that goes into the overall race report. Not sure how much of it gets collated and recorded separately by the UCI though.
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by VinceLedge »

So as I said , no-one knows whether accidents are more or less common than previously.
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TrevA
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Re: Why Are There So Many Crashes Now! In Road Racing ?

Post by TrevA »

I used to road race in the 1970’s and 80’s and the only time I was involved in or saw a crash was in the closed road Mannin Veg race in the Isle of Man. This was because it was raining, there was a massive field of nearly 300 riders, on a fairly narrow 2 lane highway, near the Highlander pub. Around 30 of us came down, it was just impossible to avoid the crash.

I often marshal at our local road race league and there seems to be a crash in every race, usually on the approach to the finish. Unfortunately, one rider died after colliding with a signpost after one such crash.

I believe there are more crashes because riders no longer enter the sport via the traditional cycling club route, where you learned how to ride in a safe manner on club runs and chain gangs. Many people now will form a small club with their mates, and start entering races. They’ve only ever had experience of riding in a small group and lack some of the skills needed to ride in a large group, especially when that group is going hell for leather near the finish, where everything happens much more quickly.

It is possible to go to a shop and buy a bike in the morning and go and ride a bunched circuit race in the afternoon. There should be some form of accreditation before you can race, as there is with track riding and racing.

There seem to be more crashes in lower category races 3rd and 4th category. This is perhaps to be expected, the more experienced riders become as they move through the category system, the better their riding skills become, simply from experience of riding in a large, fast moving group.

I think there are more crashes in Pro races because of street furniture, which didn’t exist 40 years ago, but this is not the problem in lower level races, which still take place on country land circuits, with no such street furniture.
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