Discussion
This is being discussed on my cycle clubs facebook page- http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/vi...
Apparently the course notes didn't detail the hairpin but that's beside the point IMO.
There are alot of hills where I live and I admit guilt to flying down them at speeds close to the point where an emergency stop would take 1/4mile :-) The above video has made me think a bit about how to descend the next big hill... carefully springs to mind!
NB- Work safe video but not for faint hearted- so don't let your non-cycling partner watch...
FWIW Matt suffered multiple broken bones and punctured lung but is expected to make a full recovered without surgery
Apparently the course notes didn't detail the hairpin but that's beside the point IMO.
There are alot of hills where I live and I admit guilt to flying down them at speeds close to the point where an emergency stop would take 1/4mile :-) The above video has made me think a bit about how to descend the next big hill... carefully springs to mind!
NB- Work safe video but not for faint hearted- so don't let your non-cycling partner watch...
FWIW Matt suffered multiple broken bones and punctured lung but is expected to make a full recovered without surgery
Ouch that is bad, several riders before him looked like they got caught out a bit and took poor lines, slight dip beforehand that obscured the hairpin?
Always difficult to judge unless you know the hill, I got caught out on a steep hill near me, about 15% straight as a die , good visibility, no junctions and you can see for a mile that no cars are coming , text book flat out business. I was even on the brakes as it had just rained, but the tarmac was so smooth it was like ice, the crosswind caught me and I couldn't hold back on the brakes instead I had to hang on , scared the s
t out of me, I locked my knees onto the crossbar to keep it straight , my whole life flashed before me!! I'm quite a good descender as well. A week later a cyclist died on the same hill...
Ride safe guys!
Always difficult to judge unless you know the hill, I got caught out on a steep hill near me, about 15% straight as a die , good visibility, no junctions and you can see for a mile that no cars are coming , text book flat out business. I was even on the brakes as it had just rained, but the tarmac was so smooth it was like ice, the crosswind caught me and I couldn't hold back on the brakes instead I had to hang on , scared the s
t out of me, I locked my knees onto the crossbar to keep it straight , my whole life flashed before me!! I'm quite a good descender as well. A week later a cyclist died on the same hill...Ride safe guys!
Horrible indeed, but is there a good reason why the riders were not approaching the bend way out on the right hand side of the road (out-in-out)? And why were the team cars using the outside of the bend if they could see that the riders were?
I'm not having a dig here, just curious is all. Also the two that hit the motorbike? Perhaps little the cyclists could do to avoid at those speeds, and to be fair to them, it's a closed road race so they'd be expecting a clear road ahead. But the motorcyclist should probaly have picked a better place to stop as he contributed significantly to the hazard presented.
Still. It all unfolds so quickly that there was no time to send warning back up the road and implement some form of traffic control. In the end, maybe it's just inevitable given the lack of warning in the road book referred to by the OP. Even the cars were struggling with which line to take. Or can it be filed away in the "typical bloody Porsche driver" section?
That Matt Brammeier is "stable" in hospital is a mercy. Badly hurt as he is, that could just as easily have been a fatality, as at that approach speed he was always going to be heading off into the trees, quite possibly collecting spectators on his way through.
I'm not having a dig here, just curious is all. Also the two that hit the motorbike? Perhaps little the cyclists could do to avoid at those speeds, and to be fair to them, it's a closed road race so they'd be expecting a clear road ahead. But the motorcyclist should probaly have picked a better place to stop as he contributed significantly to the hazard presented.
Still. It all unfolds so quickly that there was no time to send warning back up the road and implement some form of traffic control. In the end, maybe it's just inevitable given the lack of warning in the road book referred to by the OP. Even the cars were struggling with which line to take. Or can it be filed away in the "typical bloody Porsche driver" section?
That Matt Brammeier is "stable" in hospital is a mercy. Badly hurt as he is, that could just as easily have been a fatality, as at that approach speed he was always going to be heading off into the trees, quite possibly collecting spectators on his way through.
There were a few guys that came off on the Tour O The Borders Sportive I did on Sunday.
The worst one ended up needing airlifted to hospital - he has been online, has 6 broken ribs, broken clavicle and a punctured lung but is already asking about his bike
Apparently someone else also came off on the same corner (Talla hill descent) and actually hit the first poor soul as he was being attended to.
The event ended up being stopped for an hour to let the emergency services do their stuff.
Really scary how fragile we are, especially when caught out at those kinds of speeds.
The worst one ended up needing airlifted to hospital - he has been online, has 6 broken ribs, broken clavicle and a punctured lung but is already asking about his bike
Apparently someone else also came off on the same corner (Talla hill descent) and actually hit the first poor soul as he was being attended to.
The event ended up being stopped for an hour to let the emergency services do their stuff.
Really scary how fragile we are, especially when caught out at those kinds of speeds.
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