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Cyclist caused an accident and left the scene
It was a lovely day on Sunday for the Etape Loch Ness event.
Only a few miles in a male rider hit a pothole and took out a lady rider. She was fine as was her bike, however her helmet was smashed and she could not continue. Luckily the helmet meant she walked away but so did the rider who caused the accident.
The male ride had severe road rash, his lyrca was completly ripped and he was barely decent. He didn't stop to check the lady needed any help, after all her head had taken quite a bash, borne out by the damage to the helmet. He was too hell bent on his time.
Come on folks, its a sportive not a race, please think about other people in the event and
when you hear the 2 tones of an ambulance, immediately make single file so the ambulance can get through.
Sorry rant off now.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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24 comments
I rode many years ago in the a 100mile charity ride. The first 25 miles in 57 minutes although not a race.
This sunday I came across a 100 sportive, no problems climbing a short sharp hill, it was one way only, yet when we hit the open 2 lane road the group spread across both lanes with many club riders appearing to attack to get to the front, a few treating it as a road race. The majority will ride sensibly obeying the rules of the road, the few will risk all for a moment of imaginary glory. You can't legislate for the few, regretably.
Having competed in many forms of racing and organised Road Races and time trials I had to jump through hoops twice to get permissions from 2 counties police forces with a controlled field of a maximum 70 riders. The last race I organised the pre-race talk was attended by the police and they stayed to watch at various points around the course looking for infringements of the law.
The afore mentioned 100 sportive took in some of the most dangerous sections of road the county has to offer.
It seems a bit like doing a trackday in car/bike. "no racing" say the organisers, which lasts about 5 minutes before you're either faster and catching people or slower and being caught. Seems also similar in that you get the people who are actually quite fast but sometime run in beginner sessions just to feel like the boss as they get their arses kicked by actual racers that are getting practice in the fast sessions.
Unlike a trackday, the roads are free so I just don't get the appeal at the price point most are offered at.
Surely if you want to really improve performance, you have to train in a structured manner and it's easy to see improvement without the randomness of a sportive as a marker?
Audax, the antithesis of a sportive.
I took up cycling 6 years ago, after I had retired, as an activity to keep me fit. I ride solo but enter one Sportive a year as an incentive to keep riding regularly.
I ride Sportives as they are not meant to be competitive, I don't want to be in races because I don't have the experience or bike handling skill to ride fast in a group. I just want a safe ride in new surroundings with other like minded people.
Sadly these events are always soured by arrogant and aggresive wannabe racers who habitually close pass and cut in front of us leisure riders in an obvious attempt to intimidate us.
Wait. So you'd pay to ride a sportive with like minded folk but joining a club, to ride with like minded folk at a small one off cost and to test your performance against others on a regular basis, is somehow wrong?
Literally, "join a club" or "go do Cat 4 races" are the best things you could do and ticks all your boxes!
I looked into clubs, but there's nothing sufficiently local to me - I'm certainly not getting in the car or riding 10 miles to hang around in the cold waiting for an organised ride to start. Like many people I'm busy, I ride when it's convenient to me and not on others schedules.
I read the various blogs on here about racing, there's nothing nearby and tbh it sounded like a bunch of people riding too close together and having lots of crashes.
I'm one of those people that has little faith in others until proven otherwise, so the whole drafting thing isn't for me - I'd rather be able to see where I'm going and hate riding on others' wheels. I would say that I'm a safe and considerate rider - whether I choose to complete a sportive as fast as I can, or pootle around is up to me.
That's all fair enough. But you're still racing at events that aren't races: they're fun runs on bikes - IMO! It is literally impossible not to hear the complaints about bullying 'racers' at sportives - I think I've heard multiple moans at each of my 10ish sportives, at food stations, at the finish - shit, even at the start, complaining about previous versions.
The organisers are deliberately ambiguous - they're sold as fast rides, safe races, races without being races, but then, of course, NOT Races to attract both camps.
Personally, I consider it the domain of people who want an organised pootle, because there are actual 'races' to do elsewhere, which I do, when I want to race.
An ITT it ain't.
I treat Sportives as an ITT, so what? I tend to hook up with 1 or 2 people of similar ability and blast around them.
I've never seen "100" people riding in a group on one, but then I've not done any of the big Sportives like Ride London.
Sportives are an excuse to go out and ride with a bunch of likeminded people.
All that crap about "join a club" or "go do cat 4 races" is for people who enjoy forcing their idea of riding onto others. I ride my bike for enjoyment when it's convenient for me, and occasionally do a Sportive as an objective measure as to how my performance is improving.
This is getting off-topic; the guy who caused the crash is clearly a prick - you can't read anything more into it than that.
How about making your riding convenient for other people and organisers?
Do you know what would be a more objective measure? An actual race, or an actual TT.
Most of the people doing a sportive aren't treating it as a 'race' and frustrated or chicken 'racers' blasting round them cause friction.
So why not actually join a race, or TT?
Of course a sportive is a race... for a significant minority.
personally speaking we need to either embrace this attitude or stamp it out. I hope that more grandfondo style events start to happen and there is a clearer distinction between organised group rides sportives) and competitive cycling events.
My point being is... it doesn't matter how often you say its not a race, people will still see it as a race.
Agree 100%
Not typical of any Sportive I've ridden. Mind you, the Etape Loch Ness is relatively flat and short, and closed road, so probably attracts folk more intent on a good time.
I'll keep saying it but the actions described here are just so typical of sportives and described with great/er regularity.
Are they? Not on any I've ever ridden. And how can you say this with conviction given that you claim to have never ridden one?
Bit unfair to say the rider caused the accident when in fact the poor road surface did. His actions afterwards aren't really defendable though.
So if a car were to mow down a cyclist because they hit a pothole it is not the motorists fault?
Anyone who uses the roads needs to be aware of the conditions and react appropriately, that's just basic road sense!
^ THIS ^ always.
The main reason I'm not mad on doing loads of sportifs this year is that having ridden the tour of cambs for the past couple of years, it's put me right off. 1st year in the sport category - it was carnage with people with zero roadcraft being dangerous causing crashes, but I had a good ride, just did more shouting and pushing that I'd have liked to have done etc... 2nd year in the race category to get away from so many plebs, and it was worse in a different way, huge peloton of no less than 100 riders virtually the whole way round, pushing, shouting, aggressive, waving their quite insubstatial cocks around, for me it was an accident waiting to happen (and quite a few did happen), I'm happy and confident riding in a group, but in such a large group whilst trying to concentrate and having to deal with so many egos for 80miles, it's sort of sucked the fun out of the ride, the rest of the day is/was great, but to pay £70/£80, that ride is too much headwork for me. You can pay £15 to enter a crit to ride fast and there's a lot less chance you'll get injured!
The poor road surface was a contributing factor, but I'd say that the cyclist did cause the accident and most definitely should have hung around to check that the lady was okay or that other people were attending to her.
In one of my first sportives I got caught up in the accident of a sportive superhero who went round the outside of me on a junction, and found out that I was going relatively slowly round the inside because the quicker line had a thick coating of cow shit and mud.
Sure, it was the mud and shit that 'caused' his accident, which then took out me, but a little bit of curiosity on his part about why I was thrupenny bitting the corner up the inside might have saved him a lot of grief. It's not as if hazards on corners in country lanes in Northumberland are scarce.
In one of my first sportives I got caught up in the accident of a sportive superhero who went round the outside of me on a junction, and found out that I was going relatively slowly round the inside because the quicker line had a thick coating of cow shit and mud.
Sure, it was the mud and shit that 'caused' his accident, which then took out me, but a little bit of curiosity on his part about why I was thrupenny bitting the corner up the inside might have saved him a lot of grief. It's not as if hazards on corners in country lanes in Northumberland are scarce.
Totally agreed, I've never taken part in a sportive but I've ended up riding in quite a few (not intentionally - I ride every weekend and usually ride the Mendips, so when there is a sportive I tend to come across it).
I find something similar when commuting, some people take it way too seriously as if it is an actual race. I've often found I end up with people trying to leapfrog me. Being in my early 20's and one of the faster guys in my cycle club/team, I don't exactly struggle to get by most cyclists (though it's very humbling to be dropped by someone twice my age cycling up Cheddar Gorge - Chapeau!)...
Just seems silly when someone seems really keen to "race" when I'm commuting home, not to mention really annoying when I'm concentrating on traffic.
There are bellends who, for some reason or other, don't want to compete in an actual race, but are intent on treating sportives as races and strava as TT results.
Apropos of nothing, Leviathan might be along soon to accuse me of 'projection' or some other psychobabble that he doesn't understand.
Oddly enough I recently came across a friend I'd lost touch with from my motorbiking days. He looked a lot trimmer than I remembered and he'd got into cycling in a big way (he was actually pretty fast when I checked Strava) and told me he'd been 'competing' in sportives.
So there you go. Sportive competitions. For some people.....