Bike Race Crash (Page 4)

From my teammate as what they observed in the accident:

<<This is what I can tell you:

The course has a flat piece after a rise. You had been up around the front for a lap or so, on the outside (right hand side) of the pack. Just after the flat bit, there is a lefthand sweeping downhill turn.  It squeezes the pack a bit. Again, you were on the right-hand side, and towards the front.

"Something happened" which is pretty unclear to everyone. Blake Fitch was caught up in the crash as was ex-NEBC rider Carol DeCourcey. (Blake Ccd).

Reports have indicated that people don't know exactly what happened. All I can say about that things can get tight, a move on someone's part, even if it is not an unsafe move, can cause a chain reaction. It didn't sound off hand like it was anyone's "fault." The grass on the outside has a lip to it, as it did on the inside (giving rise to a few decent 'cross moves mid-race). If I hear otherwise at some point, I'll let you know. But it didn't sound like you or anybody did something really dangerous. There were some sketchy moves in the race, but they were elsewhere on the course.

I was about fifth wheel on the inside, so I'm guessing you were about third-fourth wheel on the outside. There was a sign on the grassy median - a metal post.  You were ejected from your bike and hit that. This was observed by course marshals, who told me about it after you left in the ambulance. Many of us, including me, heard the impact though we didn't see it. It was a very loud impact, suggesting you hit it very hard. Others walked away from the crash b/c they missed the signpost. The other woman (don't know her name. First Responders called her "a tiny slip of a
thing" had a compound fracture of her ulna/radius, by the description.
Don't know if she also hit the pole.>>

So that explains a lot but also very little... I wish you'd never been 'ejected' from your bike and sent into that dang, misplaced pole.  Every course has its dangers, but that poll/curve combo just sounds really, really sketchy. 

At least we now know how your handlebars got wrapped around the pole.

I'm sorry it's still all so hazy right now; hang in there and know we're all thinking of you!

Wow, Kathy - sorry to hear about your wreck. So it sounds like you went head (or shoulder) first into a pole at 23mph+?  Glad you didn't get it any worse. Definitely sounds like a haybale might have been advisable at that location (hindsight of course).

Get well soon.

Scott in New Mexico.

Yeah, I was just thinking that they should have had a hay bale there.

Kathy, get well soon.

Wow, Kathy. Sounds like you got the raw end of things. I hope you heal quickly and are back at it soon.

More importantly, congrats on having the mojo to even enter the race.