Olympic RR

[citoyen]

Have there been any reports on the details of Nibali's crash?  We only saw Majka picking his way past but not what went before.

Both collarbones broken, I believe.

Porte suffered a broken scapula.

Henao busted his iliac crest, which is apparently part of the pelvis.

Geraint Thomas escaped with a bit of road rash.

[Oakhambike]

Nibali broken both collar bones
Henao pelvis
Porte shoulder
The Welsh boy got away quite lightly in the light of this (and didn't eh come off on same bend as Van Vleuten)

And UCI now posted note no doubt crafted by their lawyers saying was perfectly safe and had been very carefully designed (to avoid the organisers being sued)

The Rio 2016 road race course was carefully designed and was extensively tested at the test event and in training,” said the UCI. “We do our utmost to design safe, challenging courses but unfortunately crashes do sometimes occur due to a combination of factors.”

[PeteB99]

According to cycling news Nibali broke one collarbone in two places rather than both collarbones.

[David Martin]

The point is not whether the course is technical and difficult, but the consequences of a crash. It is not possible to pad it all the way down, but the outside of the major hairpins should have some padding on those concrete kerbs.

Whilst it is entirely the fault of the riders who crashed for crashing, it is the responsibility of the organisers to minimise the potential severity of such a crash.

[D.A.L.E.]

The point is not whether the course is technical and difficult, but the consequences of a crash. It is not possible to pad it all the way down, but the outside of the major hairpins should have some padding on those concrete kerbs.

Whilst it is entirely the fault of the riders who crashed for crashing, it is the responsibility of the organisers to minimise the potential severity of such a crash.

What other races do that?

[Biggsy]

The TdF, which installs padding in some spots, and avoids using excessively dangerous routes in the first place.

Other courses are as dangerous here and there, but it's the long stretches of terribly deep gutters that made extremely serious injury too likely indeed if you crashed on the descents of the Olympic RR.

[IanDG]

The TdF, which installs padding in some spots, and avoids using excessively dangerous routes in the first place.

Other courses are as dangerous here and there, but it's the long stretches of terribly deep gutters that made extremely serious injury too likely indeed if you crashed on the descents of the Olympic RR.

Miles and miles of descent off cols with no padding in sight, small walls at the side of the road and steep drop offs. Use of cobbled roads, use of wet causeways. Cancellara has organised go-slows in recent years because riders considered part of the route too dangerous.

Casartelli lost his life on the Col de Portet d'Aspet in 1995. It's been used 13 times since.

[Bledlow]

Van Vleuten: Concussion and three cracks in her spine. She is still in Intensive Care and will remain there for the rest of the night.

That was a hard impact - I was worried about her spine when I saw it.

I was worried about her life. Snapped neck. Over.

To date two Olympic athletes have lost their lives in competition in the Summer Olympics, the last of which was in 1960.

And worst of all (IMO) - snapped neck but scooped up & ventilated soon enough to still have a brain functioning enough that you are aware of your condition.

[Mr Larrington]

I was more wondering whether Henao went down and Nibbles ran into him, or vice-versa, or whether they manged to stack independently.

[David Martin]

The point is not whether the course is technical and difficult, but the consequences of a crash. It is not possible to pad it all the way down, but the outside of the major hairpins should have some padding on those concrete kerbs.

Whilst it is entirely the fault of the riders who crashed for crashing, it is the responsibility of the organisers to minimise the potential severity of such a crash.

What other races do that?

In principle every race organised by British Cycling. Do you not do risk assessments? 
As has been pointed out, the major tours do now pad serious obstructions at the side of the road at specific points. As I pointed out, danger = risk * exposure. The major tours have some regions of high risk but low exposure - isolated severe consequences but a low risk of actually crashing (such as unguarded roads in the descents). The nature here was a high risk of crashing *and* severe consequences  with the high kerbs instead of a run off.

[citoyen]

The Vuelta al Pais Vasco is a WorldTour race and that's where Peter Stetina suffered horrific injuries last year when he hit poorly marked road furniture at full sprint speed.

[spesh]

I was more wondering whether Henao went down and Nibbles ran into him, or vice-versa, or whether they manged to stack independently.

As far as I can tell from reading the Nibali thread on the Cycling News forum, they went down independently of each other.

[mattc]

do we know if VV's spine fractures were inflcited by landing on her head, or by subsequent impacts?

(I think she was even more unlucky than the male fallers: they had 2 sighter laps of that descent, plus there appeared to be a small amount of rain falling for the women. )

[David Martin]

The Vuelta al Pais Vasco is a WorldTour race and that's where Peter Stetina suffered horrific injuries last year when he hit poorly marked road furniture at full sprint speed.

<cynicism>Apparently that is entirely his own fault for not looking where he was going. After all, you can't expect the organisers to ride the bike for the riders.</cynicism>

[spesh]

do we know if VV's spine fractures were inflcited by landing on her head, or by subsequent impacts?

(I think she was even more unlucky than the male fallers: they had 2 sighter laps of that descent, plus there appeared to be a small amount of rain falling for the women. )

They were lumbar fractures, so from what I can recall of footage, they were possibly sustained just after she knocked herself out by headbutting the rain gulley.

[mattc]

I've now found a spectator's footage of the crash. I was mistaken - it looks like she "landed" in the gutter i.e. hit the ground with her head, and the kerb with (not sure, maybe) her torso/back almost simultansouly.

And now I've had about enough of horrible crash footage ...

(if you find the same video, it feels like forever before medics arrive, during which VV is utterly motionless apart from barely visible breathing. Watching nothing happen is rarely so unpleasant.)

[simonp]

I thought she high sided and somersaulted onto the kerb when I watched it in real time.

[rafletcher]

Miles and miles of descent off cols with no padding in sight, small walls at the side of the road and steep drop offs. Use of cobbled roads, use of wet causeways. Cancellara has organised go-slows in recent years because riders considered part of the route too dangerous.

And I can remember little Tommy Voekler (and I think a. n. other) managing to shoot through a house gateway in an iron railing fence outside a property on one TdF descent. No padding in sight.

[Veloman]

And I can remember little Tommy Voekler (and I think a. n. other) managing to shoot through a house gateway in an iron railing fence outside a property on one TdF descent. No padding in sight.

There you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLQqOGl5sp0

[Legs]

Risk mitigation measures should be proportionate with respect to exposure, the nature of the hazard and the potential consequences.  In the Tour, it is not economic to put hay bales on every corner of every mountain descent.  However, Vista Chinesa was a descent that would be passed four times over two days, and had been earmarked as a place where riders would be striving to push the limits.  The problem here is that the deep gullies clearly serve a purpose in draining the road, so filling them in, even temporarily, would have still had to provide for discharging stormwater.