This is a longshot, but I’m looking for some info on a crash on the descent to keene about 12:15 or so. It would have been on the shorter descent before the lakes on the right (I think, though may have been further down like right after them).
A friend (woman) went down on top of 2 men riding next to each other who went down in front of her. She recalls some of it and remembers there being at least a few spectators. It was bad enough that she was hauled off in an ambulance and has some breaks.
If you were there or know anything else, she’s curious about what the hell happened and what caused the 2 guys to go down in front of her. Thanks.
The course was pretty wide open at this point, so please no “I hate NAsports because they crowd the races and this never would have happened in 1986 or if we had a sub 12 hour cutoff” crap.
Edit: Thanks for the well-wishes all. I should be more clear as to her condition. Pretty well considering, will be out of the hospital tomorrow probably and then back home. Won’t bounce back as fast as the Tour guys, but should be riding in a month or so as soon as the scapula and rib heal.
Sorry to hear this. I didn’t see that, but I hope your friend is ok. That was my biggest worry on the course. I knew I could finish the race as long as I didn’t crash and the Keene descent was the biggest risk. I hope she heals quickly.
Bummer to hear about this. With a relatively slower 62 min swim, I came out in prime time traffic and tried to get through transition and to the top of Keene as quickly as possible without burning any matches to get ahead of traffic so that I would have clean line down the descent as this is a part of the course where you can make up 1-3 minutes per lap if you can descend in an aero roadie tuck with your head on top of the aerobars and hands on the pads…it is not for everyone and it requires a pretty clean line down the road. I’ve descended this hill at 40-53 mph over fifty times between racing and training and no the hill well. There are certainly spots on the hill, where some poor communication between riders, passing to close to one another with high speed differentials can result in people going down in a split second.
Very sorry to hear about your friend. The spot where she went down does not leave a lot of room to react to two downed riders without going into oncoming traffic or flying over the guardrail into the Lake.
I went by when there was ambulance + volunteer help on the scene. I didn’t see what happened or who it was - other than a small crowd surrounding someone on the side of the road. I hope your friend is OK and recovers quickly.
Thanks Dev. I saw you starting out on the bike, there was actually a HUGE crowd maybe 1-2 min behind you. People walked their bikes all the way down to the first 180 turn.
I’ve personally taken that hill at those speeds a couple dozen times, but I prefer hands out on the “hoods” - head between the pads. It feels more stable to me and I’ve hit 54.5, so I don’t think I’m giving anything up since I’m not sure I want to go any faster…
If I understand my friend correctly, it was the section before the lakes, so the surface is pretty good (right?) and doesn’t have the new patchwork blacktop. Unfortunately, from what she remembers, she had a choice between a car, the barrier, and trying to make it between/around the 2 riders. At 30mph+, the estimated 10 lengths she had disappeared awfully quickly.
Yeah, OK that is what I was thinking…you have the guard rail on the right, and on coming traffic on your left, and 2 down riders 20 m in front of you and nowhere to go except trying to bunnyhop the riders (kinda like the TdF crash they showed yesterday).
Sorry to hear about your friend. I hope that she is OK. I heard about this crash. Someone who was there when it happened said it looked really bad. I do know that the pavement on this section is not the best - particularly on the shoulder and in the right hand side of the lane it’s very rough. The best pavment is out near the yellow line, but this does not leave you much room if you get in a jam.
Not sure if this was a problem or a contributor, but there were all kinds of non- competitors out cycling on the course, many looked to be putting in a training day. Most of these folks where riding the course back-wards. NAS President Graham Fraser suggested at the awards dinner, that this is not the best thing to do as it contributes significantly to the car traffic congestion and problems out on the course. I was following the lead women around in a race support car reporting for Ironman.com and we had fairly light traffic, but still some close calls caused from back-ups created by triathletes out training on the bike course on race day.
Sorry to hear about your friend. I was halfway up Poppa Bear all the way to the bike cutoff, cheering people on. I saw alot - I mean ALOT - of roadrash. One guy came by with both knees and both arms banadaged, and one arm dripping blood. I was amazed that they let him keep riding, and kinda impressed at the commitment. There was talk early on of a pile up on the descent into Keene, it would have been on the first loop - anyone hear about that?
sorry to hear it about your friend.
I also witnessed a crash during the first loop. Based on my swim time, It was probably around 8h45 or so toward Kenee. At least one rider went down (maybe 5/7 riders behind me)… Not sure what happened and if only one rider went down… I hope the rider was ok and I honestly felt releive I was not part of it…
“Not sure if this was a problem or a contributor, but there were all kinds of non- competitors out cycling on the course, many looked to be putting in a training day. Most of these folks where riding the course back-wards. NAS President Graham Fraser suggested at the awards dinner, that this is not the best thing to do as it contributes significantly to the car traffic congestion and problems out on the course. I was following the lead women around in a race support car reporting for Ironman.com and we had fairly light traffic, but still some close calls caused from back-ups created by triathletes out training on the bike course on race day.”
this was a problem with the swim to
some guy’s were on the swim coarse training while the last swimmers were still in the watter
some of the lifeguards didn’t know what to do .
There were people on the run course as well. I was at the boathouse aid station and we had several people come through just out for a jog. One person actually took some supplies farther down the line when one of the volunteers didn’t realize she wasn’t racing…unbelievable.
No idea if this was an issue for your friend but I noticed, as usual, people tend to descend in the middle of the lane. I think it is because they do not realize that others can be going a lot faster then they are. I had a couple of close calls and was screaming on your left at the top of my lungs a number of times on both laps.
Glad to hear she will be ok, she is lucky to be alive!
I second that…These types really feel the need to not be confused with regular spectators. They feel they need to let everyone know that they are athletes as well by running/riding on the course. WTF. Get out of the way and lets us have the course to ourselves!!!
The Darwin award on this front has to go to the guy who decided to swing into Transition after only ONE LAP on the bike. His timing was perfect!! To the roars of the crowd, he came in just in front of Belinda Granger and headed out on the run. Even with Mike Reilly publicly telling the guy to get out of the way he and get off the course he kept going. What part of DNF did this guy not get. When you are out you are out! You don’t keep going on and it’s particularly rude to do so in front of one of the top women in the world!
I didn’t see the crash but I got there right after it occurred and stopped to help. I only saw 2 cyclists though - your friend, and a guy who said he was ok but had some pretty bad road rash, I just assumed that the two of them had collided.
I was wondering how she was doing - I am really glad to hear that she will be all right.