How many crashes in cat 4 racing?

davep123

Ok last question before I embark on my racing career. Call me a wuss but I'm just interested in how many crashes there are in 4th cat races? Obviously there's going to be the occasional spill but how frequent are these? I'm sure this must be crossing some other would be racers minds.
Cheers

cleeve hill reject

I've ridden 2 4th cat races this season and there's been a crash at each, not sure if this is representative, one was a huge group and one was on a very windy day, but I'd expect there's likely to be a crash every other race, especially if there are tight corners. Make sure you have some experience of group riding so you can hold your line in corners and don't make any sudden moves and you'll be fine. It's pretty pot-luck as to wether you get gathered up if someone else causes a crash though, people will tell you to ride at the front, others at the back and others at the side to avoid crashes, I'd just not worry about it and get on with it, adds to the excitement!

sylvanus

Stay in the first 10 riders in the bunch and you'll be a lot safer - fall back and you'll be at the mercy of wekaer riders going over. Pay attention, stay relaxed and look through the people in front of you to stay aware of what is happening.

brownbosh

Ive raced 8 times and there have been crashes in 5 of them! I personally have only come down once though. Stay near the front and if survival is more important to you than a placing stay on the outside edge of the bunch too as it gives you somewhere to escape to if necesary. More importantly make sure you ride in a group regularly and are not the one responsible. Keep an eye out for the half witts and simply stay away from them!

sylvanus

You'll quickly develop a sixth sense for who the risky riders are by the way they move / react - in general if they have the bike-handling skill of a sack of spuds then stay well away from them. You'll find that new 4th cats are much less aware of holding their line and swerve sideways without warning. Be careful of that if you're moving up the side of the bunch. The most dangerous time is when people begin to tire and lose concentration. The final sprint can be dangerous but by then its mostly the stronger and more experienced riders left so risk is lower than it seems. I guess I rode in 6-7 cat 4 races and saw one baddish crash (beginners race).

Read these they're good - will save you a lot of time and effort:

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/141

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/204

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/212

davep123

Excellent articles.
Cheers

Monty Dog

No wonder there's so many crashes in 4th cat races if the sage piece of advice is to ride in the top-10! Everybody squeezing into the front of the field and taking risks on corners is a recipe for disaster. Your mission for your first few races is to finish and enjoy yourself - anything else is a bonus! Start learning from your experience and then start to see if you can finish in the front of the field and then start thinking about being a protagonist. Everyone else is in the same boat. It's unlikely that you'll achieve this without a significant degree of experience of fast group rides and probably interval training. Unlike many other participation sports, in road racing there isn't a 'jogging along at the back' option and therefore it can come as a shock for triathletes and runners how intense and hard the racing is - it's exhilirating and exciting too, but be reasonable about your expectations and abilities and you'll enjoy it even more.

jamiecurry

well ive been racing for 15 years and seen many crashes,

only ever been in 2 though - one was a town centre crit about 12 years ago and someone pushed me in to the crash barriers in the final sprint,

the other was a week ago and somone punctured on a bend infront of me

if you ride well and use your head you can avoid crashes, i tend to leave a little more space in a race and dont overlap wheels as this is when most crashes happen.

gavintc

The problem with staying up at the front is the getting there. Most 4th Cat races are on open roads with oncoming traffic. The peloton will desire to use both sides of the road to get through. I saw some close misses with riders getting up on the outside when a car appeared. Perhaps I was lucky and saw no crashes in either of the 2 races I did. I did see a bad one during the warm up miles before we formed as a group.

There are some pretty dreadful handling skills. People move out too quickly, move around in jerky movements inside the group and do not keep a line on corners.

Sadly, my race season this year was ruined by a broken collar bone. I might get back into it, but I suspect I have lost a fair amount of fitness.

don key

brownbosh wrote:

Ive raced 8 times and there have been crashes in 5 of them! I personally have only come down once though. Stay near the front and if survival is more important to you than a placing stay on the outside edge of the bunch too as it gives you somewhere to escape to if necesary. More importantly make sure you ride in a group regularly and are not the one responsible. Keep an eye out for the half witts and simply stay away from them!

You could end up running away from yourself.

First race I was ever in was at Eastway in June 03 and at the bend just after Oxo I was on the inside tight to the bend near the front but I could not hold it and shot across the road , some how they managed to avoid me and I panolagised and off we went, very imbarretsing, there were a few good riders there including a very lean Wadley Briggins just returned from cashing his Giro, I'm told that he led them down the back straight at 47mph, on the tops.

I was dropped on the fourth lap up Oxo, hard to live with but the embaressment was short lived as they powered away from me, I had no idea who the Jammy imposter was at the time.

Mettan

Monty Dog wrote:

Unlike many other participation sports, in road racing there isn't a 'jogging along at the back' option and therefore it can come as a shock for triathletes and runners how intense and hard the racing is -

Fully agree with that - the standard's extremely high even, in 3/4 races.

Mettan

davep123 wrote:

Ok last question before I embark on my racing career. Call me a wuss but I'm just interested in how many crashes there are in 4th cat races? Obviously there's going to be the occasional spill but how frequent are these? I'm sure this must be crossing some other would be racers minds.
Cheers

Unless your super-strong, its unlikely you'll be able to stay in the first 10 riders - as others have alluded to, a more realistic goal in your first few races should be just to finish - and that's not easy - typically you might have to do a 24 mph avg over 40-50 miles - as I said before, the standard's extremely high even in 3/4's never mind 2/3/4 's. Just hold on for as long as possible - you'll come away from your first race knowing exactly what the demands are - and then you can train towards meeting those demands for your next race - you'll learn alot even in your first race - good luck.

kloftus1044

I'm a mechanic here in the U.S. and in every event I've worked this year, there has been at least one crash in the cat-4 category.

As you would expect, most of the crashes happen in tight turns. However, since the cat-4 riders are still honing their bike handling skills, I have also seen crashes happen on straightaways with perfect lines of sight. Those have been the most severe.

So, when you decide to get racing, be prepared to surf the pavement a few times. I suppose it's part of the learning curve, but OUCH! What a painful lesson!

John C.

Have a go at closed circuit racing, I've been up to Croft and it's great, OK it's just a 2.2 mile track but there are NO cars to look out for so you can learn to bunch ride in a safer environment.