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news
Chile Velodrome crash YouTube stillVideo: Horrific crash as cyclist hits velodrome starting gate that officials failed to remove
A Chilean cyclist racing for a women’s team sprint bronze medal at the South American Games in the country’s capital, Santiago, instead ended up in hospital with a fractured kneecap after crashing into a starting gate that officials had neglected to remove from the track.
It seems as though the starting gate was left in position due to a false start to the race, in which Chile, cheered on by a home crowd, were up against Brazil.
As the video shows, with an official waving a red flag, Estefania Ñúñez, riding man one, swung up the track to avoid it.
But Irene Aravena, riding in her slipstream with her view blocked, failed to see the starting gate until it was too late, the collision sending her somersaulting over it, the impact snapping her bike in two.
Aravena was operated on for a fractured patella at the city’s Clinica Santa María, reports sportslashlife.com.
The incident took place in the city’s new velodrome, which only opened in December, and the president of the Chilean national cycling federation, Roberto Pérez, has blamed a lack of experience on the part of the organisers for the crash.
With Chile forced to withdraw, the bronze medal went to Brazil.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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42 comments
That's what the flags are for, in any kind of racing you need to be alert to the dangers or you become a danger yourself (or to yourself, as illustrated). Hopefully she'll make a quick recovery, but you can't blame the officials for such a schoolboy error.
God you luddite morons are tiresome... Carbon is MORE strong than alloy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xreZdUBqpJs
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but that's all on her. She's got her head down staring at the lead riders back wheel. Group riding 101 rookie mistake right there. Had she had her head up she would've begun reacting when the lead rider reacted instead of two seconds later when she lifts her head. Hope she heals up soon but it's pretty shite that the article points fault at the officials when really, it's all on the rider in this one.
I think not finding a starting gate on the track would come higher in the list of expectations.
The officials should have taken it off the track, or provided better indication that the race had been 'red-flagged', they didn't; therefore they are at fault Q.E.D.
This rookie international sprint rider certainly should have been following group riding etiquette. Pointing out holes, parked cars, oncoming traffic and going wide for horses. Hopefully she puts her gel wrappers back in her pocket and uses mudguards in winter.
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Blaming the rider for that? FFS. I think a professional track rider should have an expectation that the track should be clear. Plus, she does notice the hazard but the dimwit officials leave her nowhere to go but ito the gate, as she looked as though she wantd to swerve to her left. Pure incompetence on the part of the officials.
+ she's wearing an aero helmet that covers her ears, so hearing a false start would be hard. I wager the second gun didn't have a corresponding one on the other side of the track, so they would have been nearly 100 yards away. I'm not surprised either rider heard it.
+ she's wearing an aero helmet that covers her ears, so hearing a false start would be hard. I wager the second gun didn't have a corresponding one on the other side of the track, so they would have been nearly 100 yards away. I'm not surprised either rider heard it.
'Group riding 101 rookie mistake'
Agreed...had it been a rookie group ride instead of a pro track 2-up.
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