Well my first penalty ended up being a DQ. Not sure if that’s bragging rights or something to wear a dunce cap for and sit in the corner.
Won’t go into all the details of the story but the short of it is I was riding and found myself in a very dangerous situation. My only options were to crash at 45mph or cross the double yellow to avoid hitting a ref, cyclist, and/or car.
To me I only had one choice and I think everyone would pick the same as me unless you have a death wish. I don’t disagree with the penalty that was issued and respect the decision the ref had to make. His hands were tied and had to make the call just as my hands were tied and I had to make my call.
My questions are…how does this affect my rankings? Will it put a black cloud over me in the eyes of USAT? Am I now blacklisted from super cool thing I don’t know about yet?
I don’t want to fight the penalty as I broke a rule and deserve the penalty. I guess my thought is a way of having my side documented so when they look me up in their super computers they will see what the situation was like and I why I made the judgement call that I did and that I’m not some AG’r that is a problem child and won’t be one in the future.
I would like to know the sequence of events that lead to the 2 options of crashing or crossing the double yellow line so I don’t make the same mistake in the future, if it was possible to avoid.
I would like to know the sequence of events that lead to the 2 options of crashing or crossing the double yellow line so I don’t make the same mistake in the future, if it was possible to avoid.
Me too. It seems very odd that traffic would only be going 20mph when cyclists are going 45 mph around what I am assuming was pretty much a blind turn? Also, maybe it’s not best to be going 45 mph around blind turns? I’m not saying you were in the wrong, just genuinely curious.
And what would have happened if there was a car coming on the other side of the road? We learn in defensive driving that there is almost never a reason to cross the yellow line to avoid an accident.
I would like to know the sequence of events that lead to the 2 options of crashing or crossing the double yellow line so I don’t make the same mistake in the future, if it was possible to avoid.
Going down a hill into a corner, all tucked in going as fast as I can. Came around the corner and the little pickup truck was going very slow holding up the other cyclist and ref. To my right was a rutted out shoulder with a guardrail, in front was the cyclist and truck, and slightly to the left (left tire lane) was the ref.
Once I committed to having to pass them I wanted out of the left lane as quick as possible…and did so in all of 2 seconds. Maybe hindsight should have been cross the double yellow and brake at a safe speed and fall back?
I went and sought out the ref after the race it came to my understanding that the truck was going so slow from the top of the hill that the other cyclist was braking on the decent. Where I came upon them from a full speed aspect.
Much like you hear on ESPN…it was a bang bang play and I went with my instinct.
It shouldn’t affect your USAT rankings, as a DQ is the same as a DNF for ranking purposes. The race just won’t count. Only your best three count in the final rankings… (You do need at least three other races to be counted though).
If you have the handling skills to take a corner that other people took at 20 mph, at 45 miles per hour - you should have had no problems with Option C > weave through them like a bad ass.
It shouldn’t affect your USAT rankings, as a DQ is the same as a DNF for ranking purposes. The race just won’t count. Only your best three count in the final rankings… (You do need at least three other races to be counted though). .
Stuff happens, you probably made the right decision since you are still alive. Shake it off and learn from the experience.
jaretj
This. I don’t want to pile on here, and have found myself in some of the same situations before. It sucks, but at the end of the day, this kind of stuff just happens out on the race course. Did you see the big turn / traffic congestion when you were coming down the hill? Doesn’t seem like it if you were bombing that fast.
Stuff happens. Learn from it and move on.
Based on your description, it sounds like getting through it with all your limbs and skin intact is a victory in itself.
As mentioned above, it won’t have any bearing on your USAT ranking.
I’ll go out on a limb and vouch for him. The 45 mph downhill has a wide sweeping turn. It isn’t sharp enough that you have to slow down, but you also can’t quite see around the corner. The bike course was supposed to be closed to traffic, but it was on farm roads and from what others at the race told me, the slow vehicle moving 20 mph was a large tractor driver who, frankly, should have just waited an hour to get the stuff done (it was a 12 mile bike course, and there is no way he didn’t know there was a race in progress with all the signage). Here is a garmin file for whoever asked-
