This is what happens if you don’t hold your line during a sprint. Click for full size pictures.
Everything looks ok.
Red jersey starts to lean to the right to go around the rider in front of him.
Red jersey changes lines, accelerates putting the right side of his bars underneath the left side of Doug LaPlaca’s bars.
When Red Jersey pulls up on the right side of his bars, he lifts the left side of Doug’s bars and pulls his wheels out from under him.
Doug goes down.
Doug LaPlaca suffered some road rash, but handled it like a true sportsman. He came back on Sunday to win the Road Race. Great job Doug.
(Photos by Mark Reinecke)
The Hammer wrote,
I don’t know about that. If you look at Doug’s line in the first photo he is lined up in that faint white line, as the scene progresses, he also moves to the left, towards red jersey. I don’t think you can place all the blame on red jersey. Had Doug held his line, he may not have made contact with the other rider. Not to say the other rider is innocent either. I am glad Doug is ok though.
Link | August 4th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Steven R Holland wrote,
The second picture clearly shows Doug steering towards red jersey……I blame it on him…..sorry Doug.
Link | August 4th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
erikv wrote,
I’m not sure who exactly it was not holding their line, either. Kinda looks like that contact was fair and square. Also, did the FM guy move to his right a little? Looks like red jersey got spooked.
Link | August 4th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
gray8110 wrote,
I started to comment on this earlier, but figured I’d wait and see what other folks said. Cory (the rider in red) doesn’t look at fault to me - he made the only choice that would let him contest the sprint. From the perspective of the photo, it wasn’t a dangerous move when he initiated it, but Doug drifted to the left and bad things happen when two riders try to fill the same space.
I would say no one is blatantly at fault here, but if this were an elite level race not a 4/5 crit, I would have said the rider moving to the left would be aggressively closing the door on an advancing rider which isn’t so cool.
Link | August 4th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
K. Finch wrote,
Regardless of who drifted to what side or where, Kenji’s making a valuable statement here. Take the lesson for what it is and don’t parse the message. Sprint safely and in a straight line!
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Sean wrote,
While the photos and topic make a valuable post, I have to say that It is unfortunate that Kenji decided to title this “How NOT To Sprint” and place blame on one rider. All in all, the photos show a textbook 5 across sprint with ample spacing between all riders. Unfortunately Cory and Doug converged simultaneously and made contact which resulted in Doug’s crash. It could just as easily have gone the other way with Cory crashing. The photos show that Cory had plenty of space, but his line was limited by riders on either side. Doug, on the other hand had open road to his right, but instead moved left. I don’t think that either rider intended to make contact or be dangerous. Unpredictable things happen while giving violent effort at high speed in close quarters. That is all part of bike racing. I think this post might have better been titled “The Risks of Sprinting”.
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Sean wrote,
I just had another look. In the third photo, Kenji says “Red jersey changes lines, accelerates putting the right side of his bars underneath the left side of Doug LaPlaca’s bars.” In the fourth photo he says “When Red Jersey pulls up on the right side of his bars, he lifts the left side of Doug’s bars and pulls his wheels out from under him.”
However, the photo clearly shows that Cory has already overtaken Doug at this point and that Doug’s arms and bars are well behind Cory’s making it impossible for Cory to lift the left side of Doug’s bars. To say that Cory accelerated from behind and put his bars underneath Doug’s simply isn’t accurate. Contact between the riders came after Cory’s bars were already well ahead of Doug’s.
I agree with K. Finch that we should learn from the incident, but I don’t agree that we shouldn’t make a careful and accurate assessment of what happened. Otherwise Kenji runs the risk of placing blame and affecting a rider’s reputation when it isn’t warrented.
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 9:18 am
juan c wrote,
Im not sure I quite agree with the opinion that a ‘proper’ sprint technique is one where a rider doesn’t change lines. Having said that I agree and understand that ‘wild’ changes in line, or ‘unpredictable’ changes in line are bad. I may not be the most experienced rider in the group, but I have been riding/racing since the early eighties and believe that the dynamics of sprinting involve a necessary amount of change in line, or at least the flexibility to do so.
In the scenario here, it seems to me that the rider who fell has the responsibility to protect himself as much OR MORE than the rider in front of him- precisely because he is behind. While you should be aware of your ‘blind spots’ when changing lines I don’t believe you can account for others choice to be next to you in a sprint. Therefore, the following rider has to be responsible for ‘creating space’ enough to protect him self in this scenario. Sprinting is obviously dangerous and requires that the rider both accept the risk, and to simultaneously be able to his best to avoid it- not counting on others to sprint in a straight line. This isn’t a drag race, its sprint to the line after a road race, right? We don’t just roll up and say ‘get set, go’ - its dynamic and changing…
If you meant ‘how not to sprint’ in reference to LaPlaca I would agree. As with most crashes it doesn’t seem that cut and dry to me.
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
stevef wrote,
just looking at the line on the pavement you can see that they converged into each other. This sort of thing happens all the time in sprinting. Nobody says “aww shucks, its a tight squeeze so I won’t go for it”. The fact of the matter is you’ve raced for an hour or two and all that gets condensed into about five or ten seconds at the end and things get hectic. These riders could just have easily stayed up as they did fall over, some times you get bumped hard by the next guy and keep, sometimes your bars lock and you go down. I’ve noticed this happens much more in the 3s than it did in the 4s and 5s. Don’t know about the 1s and 2s.
-sf
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
steve_s wrote,
Interesting argument. But as a first-hand observer, these photos don’t do it justice. If you saw it happen, it was clear the rider in red was swinging his bike and his body to a dangerous extent. Juan C’s comments above would be accurate if the red jersey had position. In reality, the crash occured when the red jersey came from behind the guy who crashed. The red jersey’s shoulder actually hit the other rider in the back. If you look at Kenji’s photos, notice the shoulder postion of the red jersey after impact. His shoulder is a good 12 inches outside his handle bar after the shoulder was driven through the other rider. Compare this to everyone else in the sprint. See the difference? Good, bad or indifferent, this is what officials call “agressive riding.” Everyone else’s body’s are consistent with their lines and within the framework of their bikes. The second thing to notice is the variation of the red jersey’s line. When he makes his move to the right, he changed his line by nearly two feet. The crashed rider’s line changed less than 6 inches. Further evidence of which rider had position established. This is important from an officiating standpoint. I’m sure both riders intended no harm to one another and simply wanted the win. But to Kenji’s point, we all have a choice on how aggressively we choose to ride. If you choose to initiate body and bike contact in an amateur race, you should be ready to take some heat for it.
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
cdb wrote,
It’s a wise defensive position to take, utilizing your rounded shoulders and flexible elbows to absorb the contact between riders, rather than putting your handlebars in the “contact” zone. If a rider is veering into you, or you are also simultaneously veering towards another rider, that’s the way to protect your space, “just in case”. As long as you’re not trying to bash someone out of the way, but are truly trying to prevent a crash, all the while aggressively accelerating towards the line, it’s just part of the game. It’s a dangerous place to be, and isn’t outlandish to think that occasionally someone will go down. Just don’t make it intentional. It’s a Cat. 4 race! - any “prize” worthy of the risk? Likely not.
Both riders involved could have done things differently, and I’m sure they will do so next time they have the opportunity. It’s part of learning as you move up the ranks. Forgive and move on.
Link | August 5th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
SB wrote,
The main issue here looks that the guy that crashed does not know how to use his arms properly in a sprint. A quick flick of the left elbow could have easily propped him back upright while creating space between him and the red rider. Getting comfortable touching people in a race is an absolute must if you are going to be sprinting.
Link | August 6th, 2008 at 8:40 am