Spilled oil from a motorbike that crashed ahead of the peloton is being blamed - and other interesting quotes

Ouch. I've fallen a few times - crossed wheels at Heffron in a crit, mucking about at Camperdown velodrome, hitting a traffic island at Warriewood circuit in a race... it hurts but you get back on, feel OK but stiffen up later. By the 2nd day you feel really sore and the pain lingers until the wounds finally heal-over just enough. You expect that sort of stuff. But oil slicks are the pits. I was once riding from Marrickville to wherever and had to ride over the Lewisham railway bridge. It's a hard right at the lights, accelerate on a short rise up to the bridge and then a nice drop left past the (very handy) hospital. Except the crest of the rise was coated with an invisible grease slick. Had I been in the saddle I may have stayed upright, but I wasn't. The bike just went... away. After hitting the road and sliding clear I watched 4-wheeled vehicles going through without drama and just shrugged. Whilst picking the bike up and cleaning myself off a motorbike and rider took the same line as me, hit the grease and hit the deck. He was less philosophical about it, shaking a fist angrily at passing cars. How dare they have better traction! How dare they not stop and clean up this mess! It happens. It hurts.

VeloNews.com - Garmin's Christian Vande Velde leaves Tour de France with broken ribs

Spilled oil from a motorbike that crashed ahead of the peloton is being blamed for the high number of accidents with seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, reigning champion Alberto Contador and last year’s runner-up Andy Schleck all escaping unhurt despite hitting the tarmac.

VeloNews.com - Garmin's Christian Vande Velde leaves Tour de France with broken ribs

Christian Vande Velde has been forced out of this year’s Tour de France after breaking two ribs in the crash-marred second stage, his Garmin-Transitions team’s sporting director Matt White told AFP on Monday.

VeloNews.com - The Stockeau Massacre: Damage assessment after the Tour de France's second stage

It all started when Lampre rider Francesco Gavazzi crashed out of the breakaway on the Stockeu. A TV motorcycle then crashed while avoiding hitting Gavazzi, and the bike spilled oil on the road. The oil had time to run down the hill by the time the peloton came through a few minutes later, setting off a dangerous domino effect that saw over 60 riders sliding across the road.

VeloNews.com - The Stockeau Massacre: Damage assessment after the Tour de France's second stage

“The first thing on my mind after the crash was Andy and Fränk. They are our captains, and of course, I want to show solidarity, respect and loyalty to them and to the race by waiting, even though I lost the jersey,” Cancellara said. “It was the right thing to do, to wait, so everybody comes together to the finish line together. When you have everybody on the ground and people five minutes behind because they can’t find their bike then it’s only normal.”

VeloNews.com - The Stockeau Massacre: Damage assessment after the Tour de France's second stage

“But you must also see the other side. The fans, who stand along the road to see cycling, and for the sponsors and the race organizers, who invest so much in the Tour de France — they also deserve respect.”

VeloNews.com - The Stockeau Massacre: Damage assessment after the Tour de France's second stage

“I feel frustrated by what happened today,” said Thor Hushovd. “Our team was working hard and we would have had a good chance for victory. I feel like they have taken something away from us today. There were a few sprinters who did not make it to the front group, but there was no reason not to contest the sprint. Everyone made a gentleman’s agreement not to sprint, but I lost an important opportunity to try to win the stage and gain points.”

Le Tour 2010 - Stage 2 - "Why should Cancellara decide?" Indeed. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

I guess yesterday's - or last night's - debacle at Le Tour can be blamed on too many riders on too-narrow roads. Add some rain and maybe a sprinkle of oil and bingo, they all fall down. Well, some had better luck than others. Chavanal made his own luck and kept well clear, making his win a deserved one - but the points and time gap were not a "real" result and I'm sure even he feels a bit cheated that the remaining riders - and not just Cancellara, although he spontaneously took up the 'lead coordinator' role - turned off the chase. Yes, it was the right thing to do when big names were splattered all over the road - it's meant to be an athletic contest, not a smash-em-up derby after all. But many of us have been in bike races where conditions were bad - rain, hail, dirt roads, crashes - and still the race went on. So why last night was different I'm not sure. It was bad and riders were confused, but did it need to be neutralised all the way to the end...? What if Cancellara and others were not just seeking to be "fair" to the fallen but also hoping that their teammates made it back, too?

Whilst the riders make the race and must ride to the conditions - free will reigns over contracted obligations - they are also a part of a large, well financed enterprise. The biggest part, to be sure. But when other organisations and individuals make important decisions like this that have huge flow-on effects they are governed independently to monitor and control for conflicts of interest. Is professional sport any different? Apparently, yes.  

OTOH no one wants to see anyone hurt. Let's hope Stage 3 is allowed to go all the way to the end. 

Hushovd Furious As Points Neutralised In Spa | Cyclingnews.com

"What happened is not normal," Hushovd said on the phone. "I'm very sorry for the riders who crashed. It was a big mess. But yet, this is still a bike race. Crashes happen all the time. It's been a really big mistake from ASO and the UCI commissaires to agree to neutralise the end of the stage. The Tour de France is a big, big race. Things like that shouldn't happen."

"Why should Cancellara decide?," the Norwegian questioned. "He's a rider like us." Hushovd and the Cervélo team were one of the few to not accept the decision of the yellow jersey to wait for some injured riders and then to prevent the sprint for second place from being contested. Jeremy Hunt chased behind Chavanel for a while.

"I've been riding all day for the stage win and the green jersey and I end up with nothing," Hushovd continued. "This is not fair. Will the same thing happen tomorrow? Will the times for GC be taken before the pavés sections? If Alberto Contador or another big rider crashes tomorrow on the cobblestones, he's entitled to ask for the race to be neutralised too! So when will we race, really?"

Hushovd Furious As Points Neutralised In Spa | Cyclingnews.com

That decision pushed Chavanel into the lead of the points classification, taking away a prime opportunity from sprinters like Thor Hushovd and Robbie McEwen to gain an advantage over foes like Mark Cavendish and Tyler Farrar who had been dropped from the main peloton.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

The logic and correctness of what happened next is likely to be debated, at least in some circles, for a long while.

After the mass crash on the Stockeu descent, yellow jersey Cancellara called a truce on the day’s racing.

For me there’s no debate. The peloton acted responsibly, and under the leadership of yellow-jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara, the front group rode a steady tempo to allow those who could rejoin the group to do so. They didn’t slow to a crawl or stop and wait, and the groups that rejoined – including Cancellara’s teammates and pre-Tour favorites Andy and Frank Schleck – had to work to get back into the pack. But no one responded to the news of a crash by launching an attack or putting their men on the front to make sure fallen riders didn’t make it back to the main group.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Criticize them from the comfort of your couch or from behind a laptop in your climate-controlled office if you want, but having raced through the Ardennes region in the rain as a professional cyclist myself, you won’t hear me begrudge them their decision today. I’m a fan of hardman racing just like anyone else, but if you expect racers to accept the risks inherent in professional road cycling, you also have to respect their right to occasionally draw the line.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Cancellara had put the word out that all should wait and they did, the bunch regrouped, but we would have to wait to see the damage the big crash caused, the shit had hit the fan big time and it looked very much like it was form a herd of cows!

Leipheimer Describes Ardennes Stage As Pure Survival | Cyclingnews.com

American Levi Leipheimer pointed to Monday's crash on the descent of the Col du Stockeu as a prime example of why communication between the team cars and the riders is important. The RadioShack rider said the new rules banning television monitors from the front seats of team cars prevented them from knowing what was happening in the ensuing chaos.

The lack of information was one of the reasons behind the strike that led the riders to wait for Andy Schleck and negotiate with the race director the cancellation of the points from second to twentieth place.

I never used to worry, I just dodged the dangers. Now I see danger all around me. The fears of the paranoid cyclist

I could cut this short and write "don't do interval training on roads with intersections, driveways or other potential hazards" but it's more complex than that.

At the bitter core of the road cycling training apple is a big, hairy, dangerous risk. If you are on a bike and ride like you 'need to' in order to train "properly" then you exacerbate that risk. You probably ride fast, sometimes as fast as (or faster than) the traffic (there's good and bad in that, I know). Sometimes you do intervals or sprints, both of which increase the difficulty drivers (and pedestrians and in my area dogs for that matter) have in judging closing distances. Sometimes - heaven forbid - you get with other riders and on rare-ish occasions perform small-scale impromptu "faux races" on public roads. Not real races, mind, 'cause that would be illegal. We all know the feeling though - that competitive streak comes out and suddenly you must win that KOM or sprint, even if it means increasing your "road risk". I understand all that, it's human - even car drivers do it at times (which must be worse, surely?).

I also understand that many drivers make it all so much worse by not being aware of a wide range of possibilities and in turn making incautious and uninformed decisions. Thus they overtake bike riders when they really needn't and shouldn't (like across double lines, around fast downhill corners or just before some other hazard) and pull out in front of them at intersections. In a perfect world both drivers and riders would see all hazards, understand each other's needs and make optimum decisions. But it isn't and they don't.  

And whilst I don't want to pick on one incident, particularly one I don't have the full facts about - the accident linked to below is one I 'just' manage to avoid almost every day and feel I need to comment upon. Whilst I have an understanding of the hows and whys of these things and take due care, I suspect there's an inevitability about bikes and cars clashing on shared roads. If I want to continue training on public roads, I run that added risk. I accept it and simply continue to minimise the risk by prudent training risk management (I'll explain that concept in a momemt). When I was 25 and riding about 5 or more times further per week than now I didn't have exactly this level of fear and expectation but I did take similar precautions. I was also fitter, faster and had better reflexes. I'm more than double that age now and have to take that age into account.

The basic problem is that in order to train properly I have to:

• ride faster than many drivers expect (exposing myself to 'intersection hazard')
• ride even faster in short bursts I feebly call 'intervals' (increasing my unpredictability in 'intersection hazard' situations)
• sprint up hills (again increasing my unpredictablity as many drivers just can't imagine the possibility)
• do all this on public roads.
  

Ideally we'd have safer closed roads available just for training (and yes there are some places like that but they are usually small, offer inadequate terrain and are hard to find - and in any case involve a ride or drive just to get there). And often otherwise ideal training grounds are increasingly flawed compromises - look at Centennial Park in Sydney, once a haven for cycling but so emasculated by speedbumps and car-friendly regulations as to make it almost unusable (but we use it anyway as otherwise..?). OK, we have to share public facilities but sometimes sharing doesn't work very well. I don't see much "sharing" going on with other 'dedicated' sporting facilities, so why is road cycling subjected to this restriction? Golf courses are for ruined walks, rugby fields for mudwrestling and so on. If I dared to take my bike onto a hallowed field I'd be removed - permanently, I suspect. I also accept that sometimes car and bike racing facilities are shared but there aren't too many of those around and training is usually not permitted. At least track cyclists have a few velodromes to use.

None of this is going to change overnight. A set of reserved training roads in public parks doesn't just happen (although such tracks at Maroubra, Hurstville, Sutherland and Lansdowne in Sydney are good examples of what could be done) and improved driver awareness of cyclists' needs takes time. In the meantime we cyclists must endure and adapt...      

So what are my methods of 'prudent training risk management'?

• Use a dedicated car-free area if available - but not a narrow public cycleway or shared-use footpath unless visibility is excellent (a couple of tracks in parks I know are suitable)
  
• Avoid peak hour unless travelling in the opposite direction
• Avoid competitve bunch rides where taking risks has become endemic
  

• Choose safer roads with fewer or no intersections or driveways, blind spots and other hazards
• Be aware and cautious where risk is likely and always have a 'safety margin'
• Back off if you see are driver about to make a decision - assume the worst
  
• If in doubt use an indoor trainer instead. 
  

And here's the incident that started me writing...

Romoli Seriously Injured In Training Accident | Cyclingnews.com

Romoli was doing an interval ahead of her two training partners near Airuno in Lecco when a driver turned in front of her. The rider from Treviso crashed into the side window and suffered deep lacerations to her face and fractured vertebrae.