Air Force Classic Challenge Ride – Post-Crash Discussion

[bobco85]

Keeping this as a separate discussion from the crash victim statuses as found on the following thread: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?10414-Air-Force-Classic-Crash&p=141278

Given the severe crash that occurred 5 minutes into the ride this year, should the Air Force Cycling Classic Challenge Ride be handled differently?

To set the stage, some information on the Challenge Ride:

• it is a timed event where riders are challenged to complete as many laps of a 15 km course in a 3 hour time limit
• medals are given depending on how many laps a rider completes (0-3 for bronze, 4-5 for silver, 6+ for gold)
• enrollment is open to the general public
• there are no skill requirements for this ride
• the severe crash occurred 5 minutes into the ride

I did this ride in 2015 and 2014, and I remember that at the start the organizers requested that people line up according to how many laps they were expecting to do so that the faster riders would presumably line up at the front with slower riders at the back. IME only a few people actually took this request seriously. I do not know if that happened this year, though.

Also, it appears that the first underpass on the route is where Jefferson Davis Highway has a 2-lane exit ramp at I-395. So, you have lane merging (4 lanes to 3), a big downhill, a curve to the left, and the darkness of the underpass all occurring with a large group of cyclists. I think all of these combined make for a dangerous situation regardless of the skill level of those involved.

My thoughts on the challenge ride in general: without focusing on the severe crash, while the challenge ride is not a competition against other riders, it is a competition against the clock with prizes, and people should expect riders who are taking it seriously and/or riding fast. I do not consider it a casual ride, and I do not think it is a family-friendly ride. If they want a family-friendly ride, it should be separate in some way.

Topic

[MRH5028]

The mix of serious riders and casual riders is not ideal. They really need to separate into two events (Time Challenge Ride, Family Ride)

Even if they do that they need to do staggered starts and enforce them. For marathons they have different starting gates for how long you think the marathon will take you. They need something similar for this ride for laps and then stagger the starts by a couple of minutes.

I’m used to riding in tight turns with a crowd from racing cyclocross, but there were several times where I felt uncomfortable. Such as when riding in a crowd at 10 cyclists all in a row go whizzing by with no call at all.

Maybe ride marshals should pull people who do no call passes?

[Harry Meatmotor]

staging/start corrals based on average speed: <10, 11-14, 15-17, 17-19, 19+. Ride begins fastest to slowest corral. Add color bars to bib numbers so ride staff can quickly determine whether a rider is in an incorrect corral, i.e., an 11-14 avg rider in 17-19, or 19+ should be warned.

Add an input during reg. to determine rider staging. If unsure of you’re potential avg. speed, check last year’s results or ask a registration volunteer for advice!

General notes on average speeds:

<10 = family noodle-toodle! (how fast I ride when getting ice cream)
11-14 = low end of typical non-enthusiast/recreational cyclist
15-17 = average non-enthusiast/recreational cyclist
17-19 = average enthusiast cyclist
19+ = …(smh)

[mstone]

@Harry Meatmotor 141293 wrote:

General notes on average speeds:

<10 = family noodle-toodle! (how fast I ride when getting ice cream)
11-14 = low end of typical non-enthusiast/recreational cyclist
15-17 = average non-enthusiast/recreational cyclist
17-19 = average enthusiast cyclist
19+ = …(smh)

I think speed estimates like this are exactly why the speed groups were so useless on the dc bike ride–“non-enthusiast/recreational cyclists” are not maintaining 15-17 MPH in a large group ride. (Though they apparently all think they’re juiced like Lance and have the balance of Brian Boitano.) People who don’t routinely track rides and compete in events have no freaking idea what speed they can maintain, so asking them is a complete waste of effort. I’d maybe break it down as “plan to compete for a medal”, “planning to ride fast but not place competitively”, “planning to ride fast but never raced before”, and “having a nice day”.

[Judd]

@mstone 141294 wrote:

I think speed estimates like this are exactly why the speed groups were so useless on the dc bike ride–“non-enthusiast/recreational cyclists” are not maintaining 15-17 MPH in a large group ride. (Though they apparently all think they’re juiced like Lance and have the balance of Brian Boitano.) People who don’t routinely track rides and compete in events have no freaking idea what speed they can maintain, so asking them is a complete waste of effort. I’d maybe break it down as “plan to compete for a medal”, “planning to ride fast but not place competitively”, “planning to ride fast but never raced before”, and “having a nice day”.

I advocate that participants must submit a link to their Strava or MapMyRide for corral placement. Any strategy other than real data will have about the same results as the current state.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

If we talk about this issue here, does it come to the attention of the organizers and planners of the ride? Or does it disappear into the ether?

I am talking out my neck here, because I didn’t witness any of the 3 crashes I had to stop for, but I doubt the first two most severe crashes were caused by people in the “wrong spot” according to their pace, but instead caused by the high speed and overcrowding around the head of the race. If a bunch of amateur riders are going that fast and in such dense formation, the smallest thing like catching a wheel or whatever can cause a pileup and I’m guessing that’s what happened to crash #1. The second crash at the bottom of the AF monument hill was because several of the front 20% of riders lost control on potholed and gravelly conditions on the turn at the bottom of the hill. I don’t think there’s much to do about that organizationally outside of rerouting the course or having someone check the course before hand and set up like warning zones about dangerous areas that the “racers” are made aware of beforehand.

Setting up pace zones at the start of a ride is good, but those zones also need to be limited occupancy. If there were several first come first serve leading zones of say 30 riders that released once a minute or so to spread the lead-out, that seems like it would help to me. With a ride like this, it seems like the “official start” should matter less and people should be timed according to their individual start and finish times. Why have individual tracking chips if they aren’t used? I didn’t see any evidence that my laps were counted or timed by the event itself. There were a ton of people crowding and filtering into the start for the first 20 minutes or so. I was one of only a handful of people that I witnessed who saw that starting crush and just said “Nah, I’ll wait till this clears out before I start”

Edit: I wanted to add that, as a newbie to big cycling events, I’m really surprised that 2/2 rides I’ve been on around here have started with 4-8 Lane wide starting areas that immediately lead into a turn and 2 lane wide stretches within the first 1/8th to 1/4 mile. That seems, on it’s face, like a bad way to start a high turnout cycling event.

[hozn]

@MRH5028 141292 wrote:

The mix of serious riders and casual riders is not ideal.

I have never done this ride, but this sentiment seems to me to be the heart of the problem. I am confused by a ride that offers medals to people who complete X laps and a ride that is simultaneously open to / encouraging of people pulling trailers or riding with their kids.

If they want to make it competitive (which I do find a little weird, since there’s an actual race later in the day or the day before), maybe it needs to be a little clearer that participants are expected to be comfortable riding at speed around other cyclists.

Steve O was talking about riding the unicycle, which sounded like a fun way to do this. And I figured I would do the ride with my 6-year-old next year, maybe pulling a trailer — a fun opportunity to ride some of those roads closed to traffic. But I’m unlikely to do either if I’m going to be an obstacle between some cat6 rider and their participation medal.

[KLizotte]

I really don’t think people riding 16+ mph should be mixed in with newbies, slow pokes, family riders period. Unfortunately given that this is a loop course the fast riders will eventually catch up with the slower riders. Mixing the extreme ends of the riding spectrum is a very bad idea overall. Newbies (including folks riding Cabis) don’t know how to ride in a pack and may not even be listening for “on your left” nor will they look over their shoulder before shifting left or right. Add in the potholes and very tight curve by Rosslyn and it is a wonder accidents like these haven’t happened before.

I am curious how such an injurious accident could have occurred in the first five minutes though. It doesn’t seem like anyone could have gotten up to a high speed in such a short time given the crowds so am perplexed by how the hurt the cyclists were.

Am really hoping they pull through all right.

[AFHokie]

@Judd 141301 wrote:

I advocate that participants must submit a link to their Strava or MapMyRide for corral placement. Any strategy other than real data will have about the same results as the current state.

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I wish they could enforce this, but how many folks participating actually use one of the many apps or track their rides with a bike computer? I like the idea of different color bibs to give participants an idea of the wearer’s experience level, but again, how to enforce getting people to not over or under estimate their speed & ability?

Last year was my first time riding the challenge ride and did not have a whole lot of Strava delta to compare so I went with a corral I felt was a little slower than my ability, but I figured I’d rather go slow at first while passing people than tying up clearly faster riders trying to pass me. However how do you prevent people like the couple who started in a faster corral than me who were significantly weaving back and forth at less than half the average group speed before the first turn? At that point, trying to pull them off the course would’ve probably created an even bigger problem.

I do think they need to eliminate the choke point previously listed and even more importantly, work with the state and local road maintenance offices to ensure the larger potholes, broken pavement portions, etc are either fixed or at least very clearly marked for the ride.

[tnelson]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 141304 wrote:

If we talk about this issue here, does it come to the attention of the organizers and planners of the ride? Or does it disappear into the ether?

I know some folks at ASI and will forward this thread to them.

[Mikey]

Charge entry fees per lap. Think you will ride 6 laps – then pay more to register. Have 3 heats, Families 0-2 laps pace, Intermediate 2-4 lap pace, and Expert 4+. Let your cost structure drive demand.

Then you can also limit registrations for each heat.

Just a thought

[Judd]

@KLizotte 141308 wrote:

I am curious how such an injurious accident could have occurred in the first five minutes though. It doesn’t seem like anyone could have gotten up to a high speed in such a short time given the crowds so am perplexed by how the hurt the cyclists were.

Am really hoping they pull through all right.

The first accident happened at the end of a downhill. I was going over 20 just soft pedaling here. Lots of bunching at the start and people swinging around slower riders to pass. There were also very very very few people calling out when the pack was slowing. Lots of lacerations for the first wreck.

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[KLizotte]

@Judd 141323 wrote:

The first accident happened at the end of a downhill. I was going over 20 just soft pedaling here. Lots of bunching at the start and people swinging around slower riders to pass. There were also very very very few people calling out when the pack was slowing. Lots of lacerations for the first wreck.

Thanks for the explanation. I haven’t done the ride in about four years so am unfamiliar with the course.

[consularrider]

@KLizotte 141325 wrote:

Thanks for the explanation. I haven’t done the ride in about four years so am unfamiliar with the course.

The route changes just about every year, some are much better than others, but there always seem to be significant bottlenecks.

[dasgeh]

Having ridden this on a box bike with a baby a number of years ago, I have some first hand experience of what the mix of serious and casual riders feels like.

(1) I didn’t start with the group. I think this is key.
(2) The vast majority of the course is great – plenty wide for a serious riders to pass casual riders without incident.
(3) Those few places where the course isn’t great — the turn around at Rosslyn, the bottom of Columbia Pike — are really dangerous when the serious and the casual riders mix.

So to make everyone more safe and comfortable, I’d recommend:
– get casual riders to start in a more staggered way
– fix those places where it is very narrow or there are tight turns. One option would be to have 2 different courses in those areas.

I’ll note that it’s already pretty pricey. If I were faced with a $60+ ride that were much shorter (in time or distance), I wouldn’t be very inclined to do it…

Oh, and we really need a true OPEN STREETS EVENT.

[dbb]

When the underpass for Boundary Channel Drive gets repaved, the route might be changed to use Boundary Channel and Long Bridge instead of returning to Crystal City on 110. That would avoid the single lane issue at a couple of of the choke points. I would think that the Pentagon Police could be convinced to permit the ride.

[Author]

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