A huge crash appeared to put a dent in the British women’s team pursuit hopes at this week’s UCI Junior Track World Championships in Switzerland.
The incident happened in a second round race between the Japanese team and the Brits – who went on to finish fifth ahead of the Polish squad in the competition which finished on Thursday.
As you can see from the video below, the British riders were preparing to make overtake when the lead Japanese rider pealed off the front of the line causing the British line to split in an attempt to avoid a collision.
The event, which concludes tomorrow with the Sprint, Madison, and Kierin competitions, is being held at the UCI World Cycling Centre Velodrome in Aigle, Switzerland.
The British girls endurance team, which consists of Eleanor Dickinson, Lauren Dolan, Jenny Holl, Rebecca Raybould, Jessica Roberts, and Emily Tillet, did find success away from the Team Pursuit – with Raybould getting old in the scratch race and Roberts picking up silver in the points race.
The boys team pursuit team had a little more success than their female counterparts, as they smashed a six-year old national record – for the second time in a week – in the semi final.
Their time wasn’t enough to get them to the final, as they finished third to a Danish team that went on to lose to a world record-breaking New Zealand team in the final.
12 thoughts on “Video: Huge track crash between Team GB & Japanese cyclists at the UCI Junior World Championships”
The japenese rider even looks
The japenese rider even looks back! Was it an attempt of sabotage?
kenyond wrote:
Paranoid much? The Japanese rider did nothing wrong. It is the second GB rider who causes the crash. If she had held her line and followed the first GB rider through they would have been fine. Split up while 3 and 4 took the long way round (which they shouldn’t have, they are also meant to follow through) but fine.
kevinmorice wrote:
Not paranoid at all, not sure why paranoia would even come in to this…. They could have tried to sabotage it if they knew they was going to lose pretty badly. And looking at the footage it looks like the 2nd riders front wheel hit the back of the 1st riders wheel when the 1st rider was trying to make sure they didnt get taken out. Why would you peel off like that when you can see the other team are about to over take you, just take a few more moments on the front and switch when the other team has gone past.
kevinmorice wrote:
The Japanese rider did do something wrong, she swung up into the line of faster riders. She should have held her line. The second British rider clips the wheel of the rider in front as the rider in front tries to avoid a crash. Very bad riding, they should have been aware of the passing riders.
I am surprise there is no
I am surprise there is no flag protocol to stop this happening, once a team is 3/4 lap down they are done for anyway.
Ha “with Raybould getting old
Ha “with Raybould getting old” what a great typo.
Seems the GB team overtook
Seems the GB team overtook when in the most blind spot there is. The lead Japanese rider couldn’t see them. If the second Brit hadn’t fallen into the Japanese line, it all would have been fine. I really don’t see what the Japanese team could have done differently.
“Watch as Great British
“Watch as Great British cyclists cause an enormous on-track crash when Britain’s squad attempt an overtake at the UCI Junior Track World Champs…”
Fixed
Stop mislead people please
I see nothing wrong with Japanese riders
Is it just me or has someone
Is it just me or has someone pulled the video?
Well you can certainly tell
Well you can certainly tell which commenters here have never ridden track properly. One of the first things you are taught is to look before you change line. It is the Japanese rider’s responsibility to ensure that it is safe to pull up the track, which is why she looks. She screwed up by then still swinging up – track riding 101.
Does that completely cause the crash, no. Inexperience on the part on the british rider also contributes. It looks like she tries to slow down to avoid hitting the Japanese rider. Doing that on a track bike isn’t easy, and pulls her down off of her line. If she had kept powering through they would probably have been fine (slowing down is rarely a practical solution to a situation on a track bike).
Guys, for the team pursuit,
Guys, for the team pursuit, the UCI rule is that when one team is about to overtake the other team, a race commissaire raises a red flag to alert the team being overtaken not to make an exchange. The team being overtaken may not make an exchange until the other team has safely passed. If you look at the video, you can see the commissaire (about 50m before the start/finish line) holding up the red flag, signaling to Japan that it is about to be overtaken and must not make an exchange. It is the lead rider’s repsonsibility to look out for the flag. Japan made an illegal exchange and this results in an immediate DQ and caused the crash. This was an error solely on Japan’s part. Whether GB could have avoided with better bikehandling isn’t relevant. Anyhow, these are kids, they make mistakes.
Kenyond, paranoia? Why would
Kenyond, paranoia? Why would you suggest a team that has already lost (they’ve been lapped) would try to sabotage something? Don from swamis has got the proper picture, as for saying stay on the front a bit longer etc, due to the other rider already preparing to come through this adds to the potential danger. This is one of the most technical events in cycle racing and requires an extraordinary level of skill. Once the japanese rider swings up there’s handling errors from both teams, but the crash is caused by the japanese rider attempting an exchange under the red flag.