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Tour of Utah collision video still2 (John Marinucci).pngVideo: High speed crash at Tour of Utah leaves Matt Brammeier with serious injuries
A dramatic high speed crash has left pro cyclist Matt Brammeier with serious injuries after he collided at high speed with a support vehicle during the Tour of Utah.
Camera footage shows Brammeier, who was chasing back to the main peloton, approach the left hand bend on a steep descent at high speed. He hit the support vehicle with such force his water bottles were catapulted over the car and into the forest. Brammeier then lay motionless as bystanders attempted to warn oncoming riders.
The Irishman, who rides for MTN Qhubeka, suffered broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and a punctured lung, but is reported to be in a stable condition at a local hospital. In the chaos one motorbike stopped at the bend's apex, before two more riders collided with it.
Bystander Aaron Cengiz caught the incident on camera. “When he hit the car, you know, his water bottles went flying everywhere,” he is reported by Fox News as saying.
“I mean, it looked painful, obviously.”
Fellow riders say Brammeier approached the corner too fast.
“This rider came through too fast and he went straight through the corner,” said Team Optum cyclist Thomas Soladay," Fox reports.
“The rider was definitely kind of out of control in that corner,” said cyclist Jesse Anthony. “So, that was a risk he was taking.”
Tour of Utah organisers have not commented except to say support vehicles were following protocol and that neither rider nor driver were to blame for the collision.
MTN Qhubeka team doctor, Jarrad Van Zuydam, provided a statement on Brammeier's condition.
“Matt Brammeier was involved in a high speed collision with a vehicle during the queen stage of the Tour of Utah. Thankfully, Matt has suffered no head, neck or spinal injuries and is currently stable in hospital. His musculoskeletal injuries are significant however. He suffered rib fractures on both sides as well as a small pneumothorax. He also has fractures of the sacral and pelvic bones. Matt is unlikely to require surgery but will need some time to recover from his injuries.”
Footage prior to the crash shows several riders approaching the hairpin bend on a steep section of mountainside road as support vehicles overtake. Shortly before the collision Brammeier can be seen approaching the bend at high speed. The rear wheel fishtails briefly, before the lifting entirely off the road moments before collision.
La Gazette des Sports said on Facebook Brammeier "totally lost control" of his bike, to the extent nothing could have prevented it. They said if it hadn't been the car it would have been the ravine.
The Tour of Utah is a 700 mile, multi-stage race across the state. The final stage took place yesterday and was won by Joe Dombrowski of Cannondale-Garmin.
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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37 comments
He's not a 'so called pro', he's a pro.
He was trying to regain the peleton after an incident, so was working his way back up through the cars at the rear.
He did over cook the corner, but I suspect your racing career is such that you are not really in any position to criticise bike handling skills...
Note how some of the riders in the beginning of the video hang off the back of their seats during braking, MTB-style, allowing to brake harder without rear liftoff. Not saying it would have saved him, but could certainly help quite a bit!
Horrible. He was coming in way too hot....and on a strange line too.
He would've taken out those spectators if the car wasn't there and then probably into the red car too.
Horrendous and thankfully lucky to be alive. Massively got that wrong. His closing speed looked double everyone else including those that overshot the apex.
Agree with those that suggest that hitting the car on a softish panel and sort of rolling over it may well have saved him from a worse fate.
He's has already lost control before entering both videos, at the speed he was going there was very little he could have done right to prevent that. Hope he recovers quickly after this crash.
Your rear brake is next to useless in that kind of situation; I always set mine to be very slack, or very difficult to get full on, because a skid is only going to take a few quids worth off your expensive tyres. He was going way too fast and had little chance of making that corner.
That looked horrifying. Poor Mat....as a UK rider I hope he's ok. He's a heavier rider and obviously that weight coming downhill was too hard on this occasion (for whatever reason) to manage.
I don't know where in the race route the descent was but he might have been trying to get back on after the climb or was just plain tired and got his lines all wrong.
I hope he's ok, the team look after him and he can make a comeback asap.
Yes, perfectly predictable; the fishtail occurs when your weight goes forwards and the rear end of the bike is unweighted, and the endo occurs when that effect is increased by braking harder.
Er, anyone who has ridden a bike and braked sharply knows that doing so transfers all your weight forwards so your back wheel either skids or leaves the floor...
Still never seen anything quite like that; fishtail then endo. Is that ok?
Which is why you shift your weight back, and never slam the rear on in an emergency stop.
He locks up the rear, yes; so discs wouldn't have helped. The limiting factor is his tires, not his brakes.
I actually think he recovers the fishtail (if you're skidding, release the rear brake!), and diverts towards the car, away from the spectators on the inside. He then must reapply the brake as he sees the collision coming, causing the endo.
But I've reached my limit of how often I'm willing to rewatch the clip to check it out.
Right enough.
Bloody hell ! He's lucky to alive discs or no discs. He was going way too fast for the situation. The following motor bike that caused the second crash should not have been in that position. Good job they were wearing helmets or there could possibly have been some spilt grey matter !
Bloody hell ! He's lucky to alive discs or no discs. He was going way too fast for the situation. The following motor bike that caused the second crash should not have been in that position. Good job they were wearing helmets or there could possibly have been some spilt grey matter !
One of the worst looking crashes I have seen. Horrible to watch, won't be watching it again.
Wishing him well and hope he gets back in the saddle (when his body will let him)
Google map coordinates of location (turn) where crash took place: 40.613653, -111.570976
Race was moving downhill after KOM at Guardsman Pass (roughly 1.7 km uphill to right). I'm quite familiar with this curve having ridden in the area for many years.
Speeds on a bike can be quite high (easily 80+ km/hr for these guys) coming into what is somewhat of a blind approach. From the pass it's 1.5+ km of very fast, open descending traversing the fall line and suddenly, after coming around what is a somewhat blind curve back to right, you are staring at this hairpin corner with maybe 200-250 meters to react. In other words, it is very easy to "overcook" this corner.
Regardless very unfortunate circumstances and the best to Matt Brammeier for a quick recovery.
Great response from someone that's been there. It was clear that Matt overcooked the speed coming into the hairpin, but he was not the only one, including some of the vehicles. To get a real perspective you would have to either follow the riders for a chunk beforehand, or know the part of the road they were racing on. I bet you winced in a knowing way when you saw this happen?
Good to know there's nothing serious spinal after this spill. Also, it's hard to say if a ravine crash would have been any better, let's just be thankful it ended without worse injuries.
I still think there are too many cars and motorcycles in theses races. He might have ended up in the ditch without the car, but that is usually a softer landing.
I have seen too many crashes with these support vehicles in the recent weeks. And they have to drive like maniacs to keep up with the cyclists in narrow roads and tight corners.
Really too fast. On the second video you can see him skidding and losing control before he hits the car. Fingers crossed for a full recovery.
I wonder if the problems of braking with carbon rims were a contributing factor.
All the more reason for disc brakes on road racing bikes?
The back wheel was off the ground already. I'm not against disk brakes but I don't think he could have used any more braking power than he already had.
I think you're right, looks like the back wheel had locked up initially as he fishtails. His weight then seems to transfer to the front coz it looks like he's doing an endo right after the fishtail. Never seen anything like it TBH.
Approaching a bend way too quick, we've all done it, I've got at least one crash under my belt that way. Nowt as bad as that though. Hope he's ok.
take a look at the second crash, the riders back wheel is in the air before impact. Looks like braking power or lack of wasn't an issue. Simply too much speed and not enough road to scrub it off.
It's not clear how disc brakes would have made any difference. In the clip, plenty of riders arriving later seem to have been able to slow down in good time. I'd be surprised if it weren't the case that plenty of cyclists using rim brakes have safely negotiated the same bend in the past. Glad that Matt Brammeier didn't receive even worse injuries in what was a truly horrible crash.
Horrible looking crash... Might even be a case to say the car saved him from worse though.
I find it disappointing that rather than going to help the fallen cyclist that some of the spectators stand and watch through their video cameras. What instinct makes this your first response to someone in trouble.
I find it disappointing that rather than going to help the fallen cyclist that some of the spectators stand and watch through their video cameras. What instinct makes this your first response to someone in trouble.
...to offer a view on this. Based on having watched a fair few pro races and had someone crash right in front of me at Paris Roubaix, it would be carnage if spectators rushed into the road to help. I remember at Arenberg having this Bora Argon rider face plant and wanted to step forward and just as I was thinking this other riders can flying past, and cars and motorbikes. Moments later there were people from the race there helping. I reckon if a bunch of less race aware people stepped out it could be messy.
and to offer a further view, I worked as a volunteer First Aider on the Tour De France 2014 in Yorkshire. We were given specific instructions not to assist and riders that came off because the Tour has it's own 1st Aid Team who would deal with any injured riders. I think the same applies to any major race.
As do the riders. The one who hit the motorbike was heading for the same fate as the original rider. They are all very lucky that they hit cars and came off there. The trees may well have been a much worse place to land.
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