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2017 Cape Town Discovery Triathlon ITU World Cup - crash recovery


06rush

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Congratulations to all participants of yesterday's CT ITU, well done!

 

I was part of a 4-man team that got taken out by a pedestrian halfway through the first lap of the standard distance. I need to say a big thank you to other guys who sacrificed precious minutes coming back to check that I would survive the day. Thanks for your concern and I hope you managed to recover and finish a good race. In all the chaos of the fall, I do not remember who all fell with me, but I do remember one oke giving me instructions to hold my smashed chin together until the medics arrived - thank you for this.

 

For the event managers if this year's ITU, I hope that some special attention is given to the investigation as to who one can allow a pedestrian into the road in front of a group of guys moving quite quickly on their bikes. The worst thing for me is that this happened at an intersection with both event marshalls and traffic personnel present (not an unmanned stretch of the course). All the entrants pay good money for these events and we expect that the race course is kept safe. Having said that, this is a very well-managed event and I understand that accidents do happen. I was unfortunately part of the freak coincidences that has left me with a sewn-up chin and damaged bike.

 

Please also have a look at the emergency plan for medical vehicles in future events. There is no plan for the removal of entrants bicycles (mine was luckily smaller after the crash and managed to fit into the ambulance:) and the ambulance really struggled to find the medic tent after all the barricaded roads, etc. This is really important for accidents that could have been much worse than mine.

 

Having said that - the guys from ER24 and the medic teams - excellent work, thank you. And for Herman, the motorised medic who met me first on the scene - thank you for your assistance!

 

Thank you also to Gayle, who witnessed the crash and came down from her flat to check that I didn't try continue - thanks for your support!

 

Thank you a good event, it is always a huge disappointed to crash out of an event that you have invested a lot of training and money in, but that is unfortunately a part of the sport we enjoy. Please consider the constructive criticism above to make this event even better going forward.

 

And to Mr #$%* who ruined my day and my bike...aaaaiii...

 

David

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Congratulations to all participants of yesterday's CT ITU, well done!

 

I was part of a 4-man team that got taken out by a pedestrian halfway through the first lap of the standard distance. I need to say a big thank you to other guys who sacrificed precious minutes coming back to check that I would survive the day. Thanks for your concern and I hope you managed to recover and finish a good race. In all the chaos of the fall, I do not remember who all fell with me, but I do remember one oke giving me instructions to hold my smashed chin together until the medics arrived - thank you for this.

 

For the event managers if this year's ITU, I hope that some special attention is given to the investigation as to who one can allow a pedestrian into the road in front of a group of guys moving quite quickly on their bikes. The worst thing for me is that this happened at an intersection with both event marshalls and traffic personnel present (not an unmanned stretch of the course). All the entrants pay good money for these events and we expect that the race course is kept safe. Having said that, this is a very well-managed event and I understand that accidents do happen. I was unfortunately part of the freak coincidences that has left me with a sewn-up chin and damaged bike.

 

Please also have a look at the emergency plan for medical vehicles in future events. There is no plan for the removal of entrants bicycles (mine was luckily smaller after the crash and managed to fit into the ambulance:) and the ambulance really struggled to find the medic tent after all the barricaded roads, etc. This is really important for accidents that could have been much worse than mine.

 

Having said that - the guys from ER24 and the medic teams - excellent work, thank you. And for Herman, the motorised medic who met me first on the scene - thank you for your assistance!

 

Thank you also to Gayle, who witnessed the crash and came down from her flat to check that I didn't try continue - thanks for your support!

 

Thank you a good event, it is always a huge disappointed to crash out of an event that you have invested a lot of training and money in, but that is unfortunately a part of the sport we enjoy. Please consider the constructive criticism above to make this event even better going forward.

 

And to Mr #$%* who ruined my day and my bike...aaaaiii...

 

David

So relieved to hear that you are fine. I am sorry to hear about the crash! Recover well

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That sounds ouch, hope you heal up. Was this the incident close to the sea point pools? 

I was also in standard and had a few misses with pedestrians and cyclists alike. To the credit of the marshals on 2 occasions they stopped what looked like a drunk person and a mommy with her pram on her cellphone from blindly crossing the road. I had a feeling something was bound to happen. Glad you are ok though.

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Speedy recovery. Sorry to hear about you bike. You are taking the whole thing very well. Sounds like the event organisers have some additional work to do before the next event. 

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Yes, this happened close to the pools. Granted, it gets difficult to control the public around the race course; we just need to realise that you cannot accept that you are on a closed race course - you need to keep your eyes open the whole time.

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  • 11 months later...

So thread necro: seeing that its almost that time again, who of the event organizers can we point to this thread and ask if any of this info has been taken to account?

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  • 2 weeks later...

So who's joining us on Sunday? This will be my first tri ever, looking forward to it with excitement and anxiety all at once! (Standard)

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I still can't swim. But in for the standard duathlon - my first. That SMS with the number that just came in gave my stomach a bit of a jerk.

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06Rush - nothing has changed. I was involved and had a lucky escape with a similar incident. Guy walking right in front of us. Couple of guys and one girl looked like they went down very hard. When I came around for last lap the girl was still sitting on pavement with her arm in the sling and we got waved wide, so not sure if there was somebody else as well. 

 

Speed differences to the casual (even more than me) riders are downright scary - I think for them more so. But I can honestly say that I had no incident with slow riders not being alert. One lady took her wide line very early at the turn-around mark, but you can't blame her for doing so. And she didn't panic and kept it steady, which is what counts! Esp for me who was forced to pass her on the left. Ironically, our pile-up came just after that.

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Yup - it was always going to be chaos when you have all the different distances of both events converging on the same course at more or less the same time - we had a few scary moments in the one of the leading bunches.  There was also one nasty crash when one of the sprint guys veered off to the right to finish his 20km loop with us on the 40km loop bearing down at 35kph.

 

And the poor junior Triathletes got a really raw deal when they came racing into T2 and you had a few tail-enders of the Duathlon having tea and cookies at the dismount line.

 

I suppose to cut costs they couldn't hold it over two days like last year, but it was a bit hectic.

 

I believe this was the last year of the 5-year contract so I would be surprised if they have one again next year

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Never saw any crashes, and had minimal near misses in the bunches I was part of.

However on the first lap returning from the pools and just after the shell garage, 2 or 3 of us where almost the cause of one monumentus F-up, after a mashal insisted that we were on the wrong side of the road and directed us to cross over. :cursing:  :cursing:  :cursing:  :cursing: Problem was there was no one in the oncoming lane for about 1km and when they did come it took us a while to realize where were in the wrong. Epic failure of note :eek:  :eek:  :eek:

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