Riding a vet track 3/10 difficulty yesterday style track. Just doing laps with friends, fairly crowded for a Wednesday, maybe 20 people on this vet track which is like a 1 minute lap time track.
Come over a jump and there’s around 8 people on the landing. 1 guy down, rest tending to him, bikes and people just stacked up like a car meet on the landing.
Nobody thought to block off the jump. My friends and I all came on it at the same time,’side by side, blind landing.
Luckily we all got stopped and dodged it all.
I immediately turned around and blocked off the jump, which is what they should have done first
It just amazes me in this “sport” that there’s zero basic training to be allowed on track:
Just sign up, pay your money, “what class are you? “Uhhhhh vet”
And you’re good to go.
No learning track etiquette, parking etiquette, what to do with a bike failure on track, where to cross, how to get on and off safely, what to do with a downed rider on a blind jump, how to hold a line, how to be predictable, how to miss kickers, how to stay safe and not kill others with your ignorance.
This sport is dangerous enough, but having things that are completely avoidable with just basic teachings be so catastrophically dangerous makes this so dicey.
I’ve noticed this more and more lately.
it ties right into track designs, 450s landing on 50s, pros on the track with peewees or slow old fat amateurs.
There’s zero common sense. People literally are getting killed as a result and the response is, nothing.
It’s insane.
Is this like someone’s backyard track? If not, where are the flaggers? All the tracks I ride have them. IMO, if I’m paying money to ride, I expect there to be flaggers to prevent this from happening. If I’m not paying enough to hire flaggers, raise the price a bit. I’d rather pay a bit more to ride than pay a whole bunch to a hospital.
Not a backyard track. Biggest track in NJ I’d say. Bleachers, bathrooms, ems, scoring tower, signup building , the whole 9.
1 or 2 flagger on that vet track. He was slow to respond from what I could tell but he came maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute after I blocked off the jump.. I don’t even blame the flagger in this scenario, you know how many times a rider will be the first to the scene just by nature of doing laps and being the next to come up on the crash.
, if it’s a blind dangerous spot, a rider should have the intelligence / training / whatever to turn around where it’s safe and protect the downed rider if they’re the first to come across it.
I have blocked jump faces and got in front of crashes so many times. It should be common sense. I quit a race once because I came to the downed guy a second time, he was laid out. Turned sideways across the track to block and finally a flagger made his way over - not enough flaggers.
Another bad crash was when a guy hit the track full speed one early morning while the dozer was still working on track. He literally ran into the bucket after coming over a blind jump. I always take a slow lap to look for hazards, conditions, etc.
Post a reply to: Almost had a big one yesterday. Big lesson.