The problem with that one descending turn is that by the time you realize you need to use your brakes, it is close to being too late to do so with rim brakes/carbon brake tracks. Other than the woman yelling “slow down” at the top, there isn’t a lot of warning. The woman yelling sounds a bit like crying wolf, because other times you hear that it is unnecessary.

Agree it is rider’s responsibility to know the course. If the race returns, I won’t forget that turn.

That turn has gotten brought up every year since the race began. People always get worked up about Hard Hill Road when this is the one that can wreck your day. I've always passed a ton of people in this section of the course every year, because I know what's coming and how to set myself up for the turns.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I’ve done Quassy 5 times and the full revolution twice. I can hold my line and descend at speed but many others cannot. One year, I had this guy who would not hold his line and he nearly ran me off the road at the bottom of that turn, but I was lucky.

This race will continue to entice an under experienced crowd, now more than ever.

There must be a better way. I do not ever want to read about a death there.

First time poster here. And first time doing this race. I am indifferent in terms of posting speed limit during that stretch of the course. On one hand, I also believe in rider's own responsibility for safe riding. But on the other hand, I hate to see people get hurt on the decent. Yesterday on the course, I saw at least 2 very bad wrecks. One pretty much happened a minute before I passed through. The guy looked really hurt. I might have seen bones exposing on one of his knees (or maybe I was just imagining). And another wreck happened further into the course for which the person needed to be transported by ambulance. I saw fragments of the wrecked bike and it looked horrible.

So if speed limit was in place, I wonder if any of these wrecks would happen. I don't know. Maybe more "CAUTION" signs would help? Who knows. I tend to be playing safe when I decent. But I know many of us want to go fast going down. It is a tough call.

I did the race yesterday too. I had done a total of four outdoor rides in 2019 headed into the race, but I have many years of experience riding outside. I think that some folks plain panic on a downhill, especially if there is a corner, and then brake, causing the rear wheel to slide out.

What you are referencing too about the crash may be related to a post I saw on Twitter - one guy had a through-axle skewer go through his upper calf - the whole front wheel and fork had to go to the hospital with him in the ambulance to be removed.

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I'm with the other poster on this one -- it'd be like putting a speed limit on Hard Hill Road, too. No thanks. Part of the reason I ride is so that I get to descend fast. Take that away and cycling loses some of its fun and skill.

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pretty sure that skewer deal was a cycling race, a later pic in the thread shows a group on road bikes going by with numbers pinned on their backs

Agreed. Nothing wrong with a couple of speed zones where at the bottom of the descent there's a turn. If it's straight and open, let 'er rip. But we all know what a sketchy descent into a turn is -- and imagine if there were light rain and slick roads. Safety first. Two or three short speed zones on the challenging descents is not going to impact anyone's overall Bike time. Hate to hear about an athlete being impaled with his own equipment. That's terrible.

One of my Aussie buddies who has decades of extensive international cycling experience, and consistently won his AG over the decades, broke his collarbone at Quassy on the S curve section around mile 35 exactly 10 years ago. So many people crashed on that section that year they finally put up warning signs and positioned a volunteer there with a flag to draw attention to the signs and yell "slow down". I almost bit it on that section too.

Safety First. If you crash and can't finish a race, or have someone crash into you, it's a shit day. If you really feel the need for speed and to bomb sketchy descents with hard turns at the bottom, you can do it in training all day long.

Or come bomb the descents in France with me!

I just don’t get how there can consistently be bike accidents at a specific spot in a race without better preventative measures put in place.

I hated the first time I had to slow for a speed limit in Syracuse and I loved hitting 52 mph on the Keene descent at IMLP...

Maybe I’m just getting old but this was one of the reasons I didn’t sign up for IMCT.

Counterpoint. If one person crashes at a spot every year, but ~2000 other make it through with no problem, should we really adjust for the 1? If your answer is yes, then should we cancel all swims because a few people die every year from that?

Changes were made due to swim deaths. That’s old news.

And, yes, I believe in accountability. If I were the RD, I’d do something...

If one person crashes, of course not. I'm talking about the sketchy sections of a Bike course where there are multiple crashes and serious injuries every single year.

In the end it's up to the RD. And they're concern is the Safety of ALL athletes.

I honestly don't think a speed limit here would help. It's really a matter of handling, being able to dump speed without brakes, and picking a line without any choppy pavement. AKA, "everything New England has to offer in 4.5 seconds."

For reference, this corner is a lot like that descending radius turn on the Keene descent at IMLP -- the problem being that it's a significantly narrower road.

I feel like you'd see more incidents because people would try riding their brakes the whole way, which results in poorer turning / lock-ups.

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I do think there are some things that can be done aside from speed restrictions. If this is the turn I am thinking of- it is a steep descent, that bends to the right slightly into a steeper descent before needing to bang a sharp left. The issue is that the flagger was at the very bottom of the hill and you could not see him before you came around the initial bend and were already onto the steeper section. If you came into that section hot, it could be very tough to take enough speed off before needing to turn- especially on a tri bike on a crowded course. By the time I hit that section there was an older man sitting in a lawn chair before that initial bend telling people to slow down. He was not wearing any official gear and did not seem to be affiliated with the race- so I was like- do I believe this guy? Should I really slow down? Maybe he is just grouchy that people are biking past his house so fast all day?

I think that in the future, I’d like to see one flagger before the initial bend, in addition to the one at the bottom- and this particular turn brought to our attention both in the athlete guide as well as in the pre-race briefing. As it was, we heard generally that it was a difficult, technical course with lots of tricky turns. It would be more helpful to have a specific mile marker noted for this one particularly tricky turn.

Weird.....I also had a double flat on a pothole going downhill! I’ve done this race every year but one.....too many people this year....someone said 3000?is that right? If so, it basically tripled from previous years. Not safe on the bike.

someone said 3000?is that right?
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Nah. A smidge over 2500 registered with less than 2000 actually finishing.

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Does anyone know how the athletes are doing that were involved in the accidents? I heard one guy is in very bad condition.

My husband didn't do this race so he was my sherpa on Sunday. After the swim he was waiting for me to leave transition with my bike. He said he saw so many riders falling over just trying to clip into their pedals. He said it was insane how many people couldn't even get onto their bike. And because of that he was terrified for me as he knew I'd have to get through and around all these inexperienced riders. I used to race road bikes in the 1990s so I have good bike handling skills and can ride anything. But this was special!

I finished the bike safely. But it was crazy congested for me since I'm a very late adult onset swimmer and seeded myself with the 37-40 min group. So when I finally got onto the bike course I had to fight through hordes of riders the whole time out there. And with all the hills and technical riding it was stressful because I witnessed the worst bike handling skills I'd ever seen in any type of race or triathlon. I'm not throwing stones, but it's obvious there are many athletes who have not spent enough time developing adequate bike handling skills. Scott was worried about inexperienced riders crashing in front of me or not keeping their line and hitting me. Thank goodness that didn't happen but I never felt safe even though I'm good at staying out of trouble and can respond quickly with my bike.

I will not be back to IMCT 70.3 unless they place a limit on field size. 2000 riders was too much for the road conditions and technical aspects of the course. And with the roads open to traffic that added another dangerous variable with that many riders. I realize with the fog/shortened swim the bike was a lot more congested but even with a normal swim I'm sure it would have been too bunched up on those roads. I did Syracuse 70.3 last summer and had plenty of room on the bike course and loved it. I think they had around 900 on the course and it was great. I hope WTC does the right thing with this race. I did like the hilly bike course coming from Vermont. The road conditions were like ours so I'm used to that kind of riding. Winters are rough in New England. However, I was a little surprised I'd have to race on those rough road conditions.

I enjoyed the run. It was hard but fair. Second lap was congested but that's normal in an IM event. And safety is not an issue. The volunteers were excellent and everyone working the event did a great job. Loved having Tony Lugo from Puerto Rico announce at these events. The venue was neat. It is a cute old time amusement park. Something I'd never go near unless doing a race so it was fun.

Someone complained about food. I never expect much at these events, so I just fill up on chips, bananas, oranges, pretzels, bagels.....if you want great race food, try the Ironman MT events! They do it right in Canada!

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Haven't heard anything on the wrecks.

I think people forget that once upon a time, you had 1200+ entries at this event, without an issue. I do think, very generally speaking, that people are more likely to underestimate the difficulty and technical nature of the course at an Ironman branded event versus a non-branded one. You're also more likely to get a crowd with less experience, which will exacerbate the bike handling and positioning noted here. The road conditions have always been a little rough -- particularly the stretch from Camp Dutton Road on 63 until the right turn to head toward Morris.

Here's the problem -- I don't think a field size limit smaller than 2000 is going to happen. Not without some cartoonishly high entry fees to make up the revenue -- police costs will still be the same, and the fee that is charged by Quassy to host the race isn't going to change. There's a reason Syracuse doesn't exist anymore -- that's not enough athletes to run the event at a reasonable margin.

At some point we also need to hold athlete's responsible for showing up completely unprepared and underskilled.

Aside: where in Vermont? I'm just over the NH border from Brattleboro.

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I have a cost accounting background so I totally understand the need to break even at these events. Syracuse participant numbers kept falling and the two years in a row at 90F degrees didn't help. And the sad reality is that I don't really think CT will limit participation. I am disappointed since this was a race we could drive to easily.

We live outside of Burlington. I love Brattleboro. We always stop when passing through on I-91. I love the Co-op, Superfresh (the hippie café lol ), the bookstore, and Mocha Joes. We always bring home a few bags of coffee and load up on caffeine for the drive back home.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

The race had too many people. Sadly, the allure of the old Rev3 Quassy is gone. Not sure if I would go back for a fifth time.

I was disappointed in the lack of any warm up swim at all. Maybe it was because of the fog. If they expected 2000 people to warm up in the little roped off area well, that's just silly. they got away with that one year when it was Quassy but there were so many fewer people.

I thought the road conditions were generally ok, no worse than what I train on, and no worse than Timberman has been.

The descents were fast and the corners were technical but not bad if one had some confidence on the bike. I got the sense many were not confident. Heeding all the cautions and driving the course before the race would have helped.

I thought the worst corner was the sharp right on broken pavement immediately after the third bike aid station. That was fun to do while juggling a gatorade bottle and steering with one hand.

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 I think the course can handle the number of athletes (different story about the parking logistics). I think a lot of your woes would be solved with a full swim. With a swim shortened to a third of the distance, there wasn't much of a gap even between the elite swimmers and the back of the pack swimmers. This leads to a lot more people starting the bike at similar times. With the longer swims, the line gets stretched out and the hills help thin the herd.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
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I actually did an OW swim race last night and there was a sports massage person set up at a booth, apparently the guy who got taken by the ambulance is his friend. He said he has a broken collar bone, bruses and cuts everywhere, and is still in the hospital. Said it's going to be a long healing process. Now, I just met this guy, and can't vouch for his info, but that's all I've heard.

I am used to the rough road conditions living in Vermont. Winters chew up the roads in New England. I never did Timberman but have done 7 different Ironman branded (full and 70.3) venues before CT. And this course was the worst in terms of roads needing repairs due to pot holes, large cracks, patches of pavement on top of old pavement, and generally old and rough pavement needing to be refreshed. Like I said I'm used to this but it was my first time racing on roads that bad in an Ironman branded event. I didn't realize Timberman was bad too. Syracuse had really nice roads. And so did Mont Tremblant. Even Lake Placid has better road conditions (minus that one section on the out-and-back). I've only raced in Europe once and that was a nice Ironman bike course in Denmark.

If the course hadn't been so crowded I would have enjoyed the bike course. It was exactly what I train on here in Vermont. Bad roads and all. Loved the hills! But with 2000 riders it just was not fun.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Thanks for the update. I was thinking about him a lot after the race.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Ironman has a MASSIVE problem if they can't turn a profit on an event with 1500-2000 people. With a low end, Tier 1 entry costing likely $250-300, that alone is around $400-500k in revenues. Sure they have their fess for hosting the race, paying some personnel (not volunteers),etc. Factor in merchandise, etc and I think their greed is overtaking the ability to put on a great and safe event. With their fees, I'm not as willing to let cost be an excuse.