Hello All this past weekend I did a short race just past Sacramento called the Ice Breaker Triathlon. It was a great low key event! This event is a great little warm up for the season. The bike is a 2 loop course through a Ca State park. Well on the Bike I crashed hard… Lots of road rash blood all the fun stuff…… As I was on the side of the road all cut up and bleeding NOT ONE Triathlets asked if I was ok…. This is BS… If some one crashes or gets hit by a car and is laying the road, see if they are ok…… This should be human nature…… For all the Tri geeks that went by me and did not see if I was ok you are all A## HOLES and you bring down the sport!
Also I got up finished the race cracked helmet and all did quite well…….
Were you the girl that overshot a corner and landed in a grassy spot? I saw her go over and stopped to see how things were. It seemed like she/you was very lucky because of the grassy landing.
for my own part i was too busy navigating the course to see much but straight ahead. didn’t see you. if i had, i’d have at least slowed and asked if you were ok. however, i’m sure everyone is pretty competitive (as i am) which makes it a tough call when to stop for someone when there’s really nothing you can do to help them. even so, if any one looked to be in big trouble i’m sure most of us would have stopped.
as for the people at the tbf races, i’ve found them to be the nicest bunch of athletes around.
I have to admit that there seems to be a “two sides of the story” when dealing with triathletes in competition…
Triathletes are by far the most competitive people that I’ve been around ( and this includes all those people who morgage their house to buy Nebraska Football Season Tickets ) … and as a result there are times that I decide to …
take a break and forget about the competition during the race (which I usually do better in these races anyway)
train by myself a lot of the time…
It is no fun being so damn uptight about things all the time… especially if my biggest concern in life is my next workout… (I really enjoy kicking butt in races, knowing how much sleep people I know lose over their training and also knowing I sleep like a baby every night)
The other side of the story is that I have never met nicer, more giving, and interesting people than triathletes…
So I guess, make is through the few minutes of a race that a person loses perspective and then there will likely be a lot of good times to come…
BUT, it is really hard for me to imagine people passing a crashed bike and not stoping… I don’t care if it is Hawaii and you’re in the lead… that doesn’t seem right?
— As a side note: in an adventure race this last year, my teammate and I got passed by two guys on the bike course, a half hour later we saw them broken down, we rode by… then I thought again. Stoped ran back and gave them some tools to fix their bike… we took off… 15 minutes later they flew by us again… at the end of the race we passed them with 1/2 mile to go because they took a wrong turn through a cave/turn… we ended up winning… That wasn’t the good thing about the day though… at the awards the team gave ackowlegement to what we did to the entire crowd… that made me feel better than the trophy and check… but I guess all things are relative.
Were you just wanting for someone to acknowledge your misfortune, or were wanting someone to actually stop and render aid??? First question to you is “were you at or near the front prior to your crash?” If you were near the front your crazy thinking fellow competitors would stop—it is still a race. Be glad you weren’t injured and congrats on the 30th place finish!
Not all tri geeks are jerks. raced this past weekend and due to a lingering parasitic infection in my G.I. tract (I would love to give you all the details) I was having a pretty crappy (literally) race. At any rate, we are biking and I pass someone whose brakes are obviously rubbing their wheels so they are working about ten times harder then they needed to be. So in passing I mention it to them and they give me a look of horror that can only mean, how the hell do I fix it?? so, seeing myself back in my first tri where I still couldn’t have changed a tire if I had had to I didn’t even think twice about hopping off and adjusting her bike for her. sure I finnished slightly slower then I would have but I knew do to this illness that I wasn’t going to necessarily win, and the good feelings pushed me through the G.I. pains. Some of my cycling team mates yelled at me when they heard the story, but I never thought twice about it.
Its really what first pulled me into the sport. at my first race as people passed eachother they would offer words of encouragement. this never happened at the road races I had been running. We realize we are all in it together. There is some sort of bond in mutual suffering.
I had quite the opposite experience when I crashed at Ralphs a few weeks ago. There must have been 15 people slow down to see if I was OK as I was bleeding by the side of the road. I waved them off, but it was nice to know that someone could have called a medic if necessary.
Sorry to hear about your crash… I had a collision with a dog a little over a month ago, going about 23-25mph and I felt it for a few days. I definately know what you are feeling. Just let the rash air out and it will heal up quickly. It is just incredibly uncomfortable.
----->Trent
BTW: Let me know if you want to trade crash pics…I have a few of my back and legs after the fact.
I keep wondering when there will be a head-on collision on that course.
I wonder the same thing myself. It is only a matter of time. I was almost hit head on there once. I have a friend who calls that course the “double loop of death” and he swears he will never do it again after crashing trying to avoid a head-on.
While I am sorry you crahsed and glad to read you were (relatively) okay and even able to finish the race, I would ask, what would you expect me to do for you?
I’ve never been afraid of being accused of being an asshole anyway.
I was at the Half Vineman this year and was having a good race. The 55+M (I think) guys went the wave ahead of me. A few km into the bike course I saw a guy down on the ground on the side of the road. I was putting on the brakes to help him until a support vehicle pulled up. There was really no second thought in my mind to help, he looked like he was injured badly. I would have had no problem stopping and asking what I could do and going back for help if needed. Even if I was leading the race I still think I would have done the same.
Never done the ice breaker tri (usually a bad weekend for me), but I have done other TBF events and they all have been low key and friendly.
I think most responses in this post misunderstood me… Several racers went by me after I ate shit… Those are the A Holes… In reading some of the posts it shows how self centered numerous Triathletes are… Such as we are racing we want to place and all that… I have seen numerous crashes… and I always ask the athlete if they are ok and need help…
I have been racing for 14 years…
What could you have done if I was messed up bad… may be ride up the road and tell a race official/cop/medic… That might be a good start…!
I guess for me it would depend on the severity of the crash - during an A race I probably wouldn’t stop if the downed rider had gotten up and hadn’t sustained serious injuries (broken limbs, major blood loss, etc.). In all other cases I’d stop no matter what.
may be ride up the road and tell a race official/cop/medic
Is it possible that some of the people who passed you intended to do just that?
I apologize if I offend you, but, I think your ill-manner is misplaced. When one enters a competition, they are taking certain risks.
You have taken this risk for 14 years now and, personally, I do not think you should be mad at everyone else for your misfortune. It almost seems that you expected everyone else to suffer with you. Please try to understand, I am very glad you are ok, but you have decided to place yourself in that situation.
On the flip side, if someone else caused you to eat it and they did not stop, then they are A** Holes.
What make being mad hard is, being mad at the right person(people), at the right time, and for the right reasons.
What could you have done if I was messed up bad… may be ride up the road and tell a race official/cop/medic… That might be a good start…!
As you stated, you got up cracked helmet and all, and finished the race. How do you know someone didn’t ride on and tell an official/cop/medic you crashed out???
Let me get this straight. You were in a triathlon race, YOU crashed, and then you want people to slow up their race, to give you a little pity. How pathetic!! Save the A Hole calling for a real issue. If you were top 30 overall, then you know how close the results are. To waste 30 seconds on throwing you a pity party and missing out on the podium would piss me off. I could see if you had something broke or you were wailing, but come on. Take some cheese with that whine.