Lessons from my bike crash

Thanks for the cautionary reminder.  I crashed badly on railroad tracks last year (hospital action).  An experienced rider had told me that day, "Be careful with the railroad tracks out there."  Now if someone gives me safety advice about a particular location, I ask them to elaborate/be more specific, and I pay attention!

The bike is at my LBS getting tuned back up.  Cheap bike computer's future is still to be determined after the front wheel is brought back as close to true as possible.

I emailed the race director and walked through everything that happened with her.  Did I make my turn too wide?  I really don't think so.  Did the other competitor cut in too fast?  I have no idea.  Was my turn not guarded by cones or was there not a marshal there shouting out instructions?  Probably. 

There were probably things the other rider or the race organizers could have done to make the accident less likely to have occured, but I wanted to focus this thread on what I could have done--the things I could have controlled for and didn't.

Just to summarize:  Short downhill with a sharp right-hand turn.  You got buzzed from the left, swerved, and crashed. 

Did you maintain a "normal" line through the turn, or were you drifting to the left past the apex?  You have an obligation to stay as far to the right as possible, but this doesn't mean hugging the white line.  (It's easy to get sloppy here, especially since it allows us to go a little faster. )

The other cyclist has an obligation to pass safely and not put you at risk, especially since the other cyclist *should* see you and be planning accordingly.  (At the same time, that rider also has to be aware that an even faster cyclist may be coming, and so shouldn't be all the way on the yellow line.)  It's possible the other cyclist misjudged your speed as slower than you were going and what should have been adequate room wasn't.  It's also possible that the other cyclist was being very sloppy starting far to the left, drifting right, and ending far to the left again which can allow for the highest speed through the turn. 

Yea, be aware of your surroundings.  Leave yourself an out (which is why I usually ride 12-18" to the left of the white line)  Tangling with her would have probably whipped your front wheel around, flinging you through the air rather than sliding. 

If you haven't done so already, take a really good look at your helmet.  Any scuff from sliding in the accident or cracks of any size in the styrofoam == replace the helmet. Otherwise, road rash heals and bike parts are replaceable.   

Sounds like the other rider was in a sense at fault; not technically, but caused the accident. 

The thing with tri's is you have all kinds of different riders, I've had people intentionally bump me to be cute and others outright panic in the form of wobbling to a near crash when I passed them.   I 'try' to take the safe route but have been known to weave through a slow pack.  

Always assume the other riders are going to do something stupid, they usually don't dissapoint.

Thanks McF for the tip about checking my helmet.  That makes a lot of sense. 

And just to clarify, it was a T intersection where first lappers came down hill and made a right as second lappers were coming from left to right.  My best guess is that the other rider had to be the race leader or near leader on the women’s side given that I hit that spot about 20 or so minutes after the first swimmer went into the pool.  She was moving very fast.  My best reconstruction of things is that she was to the right because there was no one telling her to go left or cones forcing her left.  She didn’t have enough time to react to me and wouldn’t have seen me until very late, and I admittedly wasn’t looking for her.  I am pretty certain our paths crossed just as I started into my turn.  Short version is that as I braked, my bike computer ejected forward.  Its final resting place was the center line, suggesting I wasn’t into my turn long enough to have swung too wide.

Unfortunate incident and an opportunity to learn from it.