What the Hell?!?! (Central Coast Circuit Race)

My expression says it all,"What the?!?" (and a bit o' the green for St. Patricks Day) Photos taken by Lisa Jaramillo.

Nothing can royally screw up a perfectly good race course more than incompetence. I figured that out talking with my teammate Todd during the ride home after racing the course twice during the third race of the Central Coast Circuit series. At first I thought I didn’t like the course itself, I had the impression that the course was unsafe, but then I realized that the course was actually a really good one and it was how the race was run that made it unsafe.  The race had all of the components to be really enjoyable (closed roads, roads in good shape, fun downhill, nice weather, pretty scenery, good course layout) and it should have been but when a lack of planning, communication and appropriate action puts the racers in harm’s way it can really put a damper on the fun.



We titled this one, "Naval Punishment".



The fun came in the formidable form of the Naval Postgraduate School Cycling Team -this race was on their turf and they were organized, powerful and committed- and the San Jose Bicycling Club –chock full of young, fresh, strong  riders that reminded me of a pack of rabid energizer bunnies.  These two teams kept us on our toes launching attack after attack in a frenetic wave of energy that threatened to wear my old legs out.  For the first time racing this year, I felt like I got a real work-out during a race. I would like to tip my helmet to these hard-driving folks and thank them for the ride.

The first lap started off at a very aggressive pace with the Naval team setting a punishing speed right off the jump. Early in the second lap there were a couple of attacks that formed a single group of three or four riders out in front of the peloton. As we neared the end of the second lap the group of riders had been reeled back in when a rider behind me crashed out on the big descent of the circuit.  We were going somewhere around 40mph and I couldn’t see what happened because I was too focused on what was going on in front of me.  This is where the mayhem began…

The race official’s response to the crash was to send a few cars out to the scene of the accident; one of the cars had the EMT in it. At the top of the descent on the next lap, no one is signaling that there is anything wrong up ahead at the bottom of the hill.  We had no idea that the cars where there.  As far as we know, the accident had been cleared.  As we descend again at 40mph we come around a turn and find the two cars (one of which had a door left wide open) taking up space on the right and left sides of the road.  The group slams on the brakes and everyone starts swerving to avoid each other and the cars.  I can sense that at least one other rider went down but, once again, I am too focused on surviving to see what is going on.

On the fourth lap around the race still hasn’t been neutralized and there still isn’t anyone at the top of the hill warning riders of danger.  We begin the descent again but with a bit of caution.  As we approach the scene there are now 6 or 7 riders down on the course.  As the race hasn’t been neutralized yet, we pass through as quickly as possible and get back on to racing.  Finally as we approach the start/stop line the officials bring the race to a halt. 

As I look around at the remaining riders I see that my two other teammates aren’t in the peloton.  Some of the other racers ask the officials what is going on with the accident scene.  They have no information to offer as they have no communication with the other race officials spread around the course.  With all of the cell phones out there, how do you not have communications set up???

As I wait to see if my other teammates come around I finally see Felix ride up and I ask him if he has seen Todd.  It turns out that Todd is putting his old EMT skills to use at the accident scene.  The EMT on duty was un-prepared to deal with an accident that large and was overwhelmed. I was shaking my head in disbelief, figuratively at least, I have entered races with equivalent race fees and all the other races had an ambulance with paramedics in it.  Why don’t they have that at this race?  Todd finally comes back around after the paramedics are called in and make it to the accidents. 

The race finally restarts with only a single lap to go and with all the chaos and waiting my legs have turned to Jello. The young pups made the most of the final sprint, really it ended up being a one-lap race, not what I had really signed up for but so are the vagaries of cycling. What I will not chalk up to as “the vagaries of cycling” was the unnecessary injuries sustained by one racer that had to be life-flighted out because he ran in to the open door of the car that was left on the field with no one warning us of its presence.

Road racing can be dangerous by its very nature; speed plus asphalt plus humans balanced on feather-light two-wheeled machines mean that we take our well-being into our own hands, to a point. What we do not expect is for those running the race to be the X Factor of danger; if I had wanted an obstacle course I would have taken up cyclocross (and at least then you know they are coming!). To the organizers of this race, you have a lot of lessons to learn and I can only hope you get some things in place before you run any more. Get some walkie talkies or at least share cell phone numbers, get some paramedics and an ambulance, train your staff and get a warning system in place. Our lives are in your hands and our families depend on you to keep us as safe as possible when we are in your care.

To get more details of the race read my race report on the Body Concepts Race Team Blog.

Todd, Felix and I at the Central Coast Race Series #3 representing Body Concepts.