Footage of a bizarre crash in a velodrome in Sweden has gone viral on Twitter with nearly 700 retweets and almost 1.000 likes on the social network.
It was shot at the velodrome in Falun, with a rider attempting to bunny-hop a gap in the track and just failing, with the front wheel making contract with the far side, causing the bike – and the rider – to somersault.
Quand t’hésites entre faire carrière sur piste ou en cyclo-cross pic.twitter.com/769ot9yZE3
— François Lamiraud (@LamiraudF) October 28, 2017
It’s not clear when the footage was shot or who took it originally, with the video uploaded to Twitter by French Hour record holder Francois Lamiraud, who said: “When you’re undecided over a career on the track or in cyclo-cross.”
The gap in the track appears to be there to allow riders to access the circuit and the track centre, something achieved at major venues by a tunnel under the track.
What’s unclear is whether the rider was deliberately trtyng a stunt, or whether they were forced to try and get over the hazard with the track entrance engaged accidentally – given the position of the person filming, our money would be on the former.
19 thoughts on “Video: Footage of bizarre velodrome crash goes viral”
Any damage to the bike?
Any damage to the bike?
Uncredible. Seems intended.
Uncredible. Seems intended.
But tag Falun, not “Falom” 😉
It is possible that due to
It is possible that due to riding a fixed gear that he was unable to time his feet at the “9:15” crank position and therefore he had less power than he would expect with a freewheel.
If he landed on his head
If he landed on his head perhaps it knocked some sense in to him.
If that was in Sweden you can
If that was in Sweden you can expect all Velodromes to be closed on safety grounds !!
Old story. Specialized paid a
Old story. Specialized paid a stuntman to pull this off, hence the giant Specialized logo. It’s called ‘viral marketing’. Nothing is as it seems on the Internet.
Valbrona wrote:
I guess they failed here, I hadn’t noticed the banner until you mentioned it due to focusing the cyclist. I never see the gorilla in the background either.
@simonmb: I wouldn’t worry about having sense knocked into the rider, he was wearing a helmet and it’s been proven time and time again, etc…
Hi Guys.
Hi Guys.
This velodrome in Falun is the only indoor velodrome in Sweden and the first for 90 years. I am an expat from Herne Hill, London and the President of the local county cycling federation of Dalarna where Falun is situated.
The cyclist decided to go for the stunt is our ex professional MTB downhill rider Tommy Johansson. He is something of a legend in Sweden having won his first downhill national championships in the early 1990’s. He is currently a board member on “my” board of our local district federation.
Another board member, Johan Carelle, advised against the proposed stunt and suggested filming a jump over markings. Tommy was having none of it. These MTB downhill guys from the early 90’s are, as we know, hard arse dudes.
It was actually filmed a year ago. Tommy is still recovering from his injuries, but uploaded Johan’s video to Instagram on Friday.
A little background. The velodrome was built in 2009-2010 and is the brainchild of Björn Stenberg, another member of “my” board. He worked on a tight budget and was not backed by any other district in Sweden. Even the agm of the Swedish Cycling Federation refused to allocate any money to the velodrome project. Our district invested heavily.
Having had the final plans accepted and the velodrome nearing completion the local handicap health & safety got involved and appealed the fire departments approval on wheelchair accesss grounds. We were about to open the velodrome four days after the appeal caused us a headache decision.
Access is via a footbridge above the track and there is a wheelchair lift to and from the central area. To get a health and saftey certificate in order to open we had to provide an emergency escape route in case of fire for public in wheelchairs. Our solution? Cut the track and hook it to a lever. If the lever is applied that section of track drops away by gravity in 0.01 seconds. We have never had to apply it, and to date we have never had a spectator on inside track area in a wheelchair. Björn and the velodome company filed for bankruptcy shortly after. Nowadays a local cycling colledge runs the track.
Tommy had walked past this lever 100 times and always thought “What if?”. That is how the stunt came about. As I am fairly well up to date with this story I would say the viral marketing stunt is a myth. I will ask Tommy and Johan tomorrow. Marketing stunts tend to be more professionaly filmed and people don’t usually get injuries that take over a year to heal.
There’s no way I could bunny
There’s no way I could bunny hop a fixed gear bike, let alone at that speed. If you watch it slowly you can see he had the distance… If he left it slightly later to pull up. Although I doubt he could have held on to it even if he had cleared the gap. It was always going to involve a nose manual. Scary stuff.
I wonder how the rims held up
I wonder how the rims held up? Perhaps he should pick up a pair of those Santa Cruz carbon rims that Danny MacAskill was testing recently by riding massive stair sets without a tyre on the rear rim.
It looks like he forgot he
It looks like he forgot he was riding a fixie. Why not just do it on a freewheel single? Less people would notice than you’d think.
Helmet worn and still
Helmet worn and still recovering from self inflicted injuries, just goes to show how putting a helmet on a stupid twat makes them feel invincible and do stupid twat things, deserves everything he got!
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Blimey!
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
As non-divisive as ever…………………..
Martyn_K wrote:
As obsessed and tangental as ever.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Le troll, douze points!
The thing that struck me is
The thing that struck me is that his rear wheel seemed to come up far more than his rear wheel. Hope he makes a full recovery – if its taken a year already that sounds pretty bad and perhaps permanent? 🙁
Come on now it’s his opinion
Come on now it’s his opinion and he’s entitled to use it wherever and however he likes. Product Review = helmet debate. Cat video = hetmet debate. Video of track cyclist failing to bunny hop a gap = helmet debate.
For balance, I’m adding in that I think this fella would have gone for that gap regardless of whether or not he had to wear a compulsory helmet on the track or not. Just like I and many others used to throw myself off giant ramps with only a terrified look on my head and little to no actual skills.
I reckon there’s a helmet
I reckon there’s a helmet destroying facility behind the bike sheds…