Incident at Cycling SA Road Champs

[gtr1]

As per UCI rules governing the EWP this is how it should have transpired.

 

1. On Saturday morning prior to racing having started, any official team representative should have requested an EWP meeting with race stakeholders.

2. The stakeholders would meet before the racing starts and establish contingencies. 

3. Contingencies are established and each team's official representative is aware of the situation

4. During the race, the event occurs and the pre-agreed decision is invoked.

 

Working example:

1. You wake up on Saturday morning at 6am and it is already 30+ degrees. Its gonna be a hot as balls day so as official team representative it is YOUR responsibility to request a stakeholder meeting in line with the UCIs EWP.

2. Before the racing starts, the meeting is held.

3. The general consensus is that it is gonna be a hot as balls day and the stakeholder meeting resolves that should the mercury breach 45 degrees Celsius, the stage will be shortened. Now everyone is aware of the proposed protocol.

4. Racing begins, true enough it was hotter than 45 Celsius on Saturday. The commissaires invoke the EWP procedure and all teams are aware that the race will be 6 laps rather than 10.

 

As you can see, it is not simply a matter of invoking the protocol during the race. If no meeting was held before hand, there can be no consensus on how to handle the situation. If everyone knows the rules before the race, its fair for all.

 

Now, there is some ambiguity in the EWP.

1. "The protocol involves notably the COMPULSORY convening of a meeting"

2. "The meeting CAN BE convened at the request at any one of the named representatives"

 

How can this be compulsory AND at the request of a race stakeholder?

The funny thing is, when you are there and ready to race, all you think is, ****, I better drink more than I normally do and stay well hydrated. Was never a thought of not riding or requesting the race to be shortened etc.

[pe3nguin]

The funny thing is, when you are there and ready to race, all you think is, ****, I better drink more than I normally do and stay well hydrated. Was never a thought of not riding or requesting the race to be shortened etc.

Exactly. The riders and team officials are generally too pre-occupied to focus on something like this. Just pointing out that it wouldn't be feasible or fair for EWP to kick in during the race and no pre-agreed procedures would have been established. The EWP is vague and rightly so as there is no one size fits all response and each situation needs to be addressed individually and in isolation based on the circumstances.

[Karman de Lange]

Do anyone know if marshall is allowed to control /stop traffic?  I cannot find anything in law(not search enough though), only that cyclist must listen to a marshall .. not traffic must listen.

[V12man]

 

 

 - but given the reply from CSA about the driver refusing to listen, it could have been prevented if a marshal was present at the intersection.

A Marshall MUST have been present if the driver refused to listen....

 

Otherwise who did he refuse to listen to?

[Frosty]

A Marshall MUST have been present if the driver refused to listen....

 

Otherwise who did he refuse to listen to?

Yeah, I sort of realised what I wrote after I posted it... too late to edit 

 

Who did he refuse to listen to? Without all the facts, I don't know. Here was the post I referred to...

I've been on their case about this since yesterday.

 

Mike Bradleys only response was:

 

"we did every possible effort to keep cyclists safe. Driver of truck ignored marshalls & blocked road."

 

I've been on their case about this since yesterday.

 

Mike Bradleys only response was:

 

"we did every possible effort to keep cyclists safe. Driver of truck ignored marshalls & blocked road."

 

[nich the d]

For a National event why are volunteer marshals being used, instead of traffic officials with the correct authority to make the idiot truck driver stop?

Exactly! Surely national events should have traffic police in force?

Pay the overtime or whatever it costs - is a rider's life not worth doing it?

Edited February 13, 2017 by nich the d

[nich the d]

I liked the end of the press release... "Thank you to ThinkBike and the BMW Club Marshalls for keeping our riders safe..."

I was thinking the same thing...

 

How can you post / release that?

[Patchelicious]

I was thinking the same thing...

 

How can you post / release that?

Alternative facts, its a thing.

[City Cycling Athletic Club]

I dont want to take anything away from the incident involving the crash, but there are some realities we have to face. As well as giving credit where it is due.

 

To have full road closure for an event that covers 5 days is impossible. No matter where you have it. The only way you can mitigate this is to have separate road and tt events, and to even split race categories. As CSA is trying to accommodate all age categories. Which is great to promote the sport. Also logistically difficult as parents and children all compete. So 1 event is much better for logistics and costs for CSA and riders.

 

Having said that, other than the incident mentioned, I have not heard of any other incidents over the 5 days, and many categories. You need to realise there were multiple categories racing at the same time and different start times covering a day. So a full days racing every day. Impossible to close roads.

 

I raced and trained around the circuit and seconded on the final day. Loved the fact that we could all race over the entire road. Always had traffic officers, motorbike marshalls etc ensuring rolling road closure. Especially when the wind was up and gutters were aplenty. At the start/finish, half the road was completely blocked from traffic for the sprint. And Traffic officers were controlling the flow of traffic onto the course and off it.

 

As a route there were essentially only 3 access roads to the circuit and were all managed. Also had marshalls sitting at most, if not all, major entrances to the circuit from farms and businesses.

 

Problem is one can never control irritated motorists, but on a whole I never witnessed that.

 

So not saying anything perfect, but I believe it was a well run event with great racing on a tough circuit (if the wind blew)

 

So credit to CSA for that and all the traffic officers marshalls etc.

 

As for the weather. It was damn hot, and the 60+ and 70+ and youth and para categories suffered getting those conditions. Should they have been cancelled........probably. but a logistic nightmare how to accommodate that into the program. And I doubt whatever they did would have had any positive response either.

 

I do believe as mentioned that CSA should take up the fight on behalf of the cyclist with the truck involved in the incident. But I don't think we can blame them for everything that happens, and they deserve credit when they do put on a good event.

 

Problem on The Hub is ( and it's not Friday yet), everyone quick to criticize, but very few willing to put up their hand to assist to manage and get involved in the managing of events etc. And slow to give credit

second this post i was only able to get to the Sunday races - there were traffic officials all over the route and witnessed cars being pulled over by them till the race passed. i bumped into an elderly couple from Wellington who read about champs in their local newspaper and they were picnicing next the feeding zone. they were really thrilled to watch the racing. the tannie said its the closest they'll get to the TdFrance.