Inquest into Oxfordshire sportive rider's death to focus on event safety

I am in  the fortunate position of living about 4 miles from that junction, participating in said sportive (2016 not 2015) and having first hand experience of how well the route was managed!

As it happens, some of the marshalling that day was dreadful. The routes split about a mile from that junction, at the bottom of Dragon Hill. The two young lads sitting there were sending all the riders on the mid length route via the short route cutting it short by some 20 miles. The Course Manager (who I complained to at the finish) didn't even know which way the route was supposed to go at the point!!! There were many frustrated riders at the finish. This is second year I have done this event. Not again.

Blowingstone Hill is very nasty. I have ridden both down and up it a number of times including this Thursday evening. It is well tarmaced on the descent and very straight making it tempting to go fast. My first decent, a few years ago, involved me doing exactly what this poor cyclist did and I flew straight across the junction at the bottom; it is lethal. Even now, as has been mentioned, there is thick gravel across the bottom exactly where you hope to brake. In addition, the white lines have been warn away on this side of the junction (and also the other side of the road,) making it impossible to see when to stop. You can't even see who has priority as Blowingstone Hill is quite wide and looks like the larger road when descending.

It's four months since that accident and nothing has changed there.

As the person in charge of signing up next weekends "BikeOxford" routes, the KEY thing is providing a clear briefing with any cautions, as well as providing clear signage both at the top of the descent, part way down and at the junction.
As someone who was out riding the ridgeway that day and coming across riders on this course, conditions were perfect and knowledge of the junction makes you think that perhaps too much speed and poor braking/lack of time to brake would lead to this.... can't imagine there is any blame on the drivers behalf?

I've seen some really dumb routes for sportives. When I did Liverpool Chester Liverpool there was a long fast descent that ended at a crossroads with no advance warning. If you weren't paying attention you could come to grief there. More recently, round my way near Bolton, I saw route markers for a sportive taking people down an incredibly narrow fast descent to a junction with a fast road with really bad visibility. The descent follows a pretty decent climb up to Matchmoor Lane, which is the highest bit of paved road on Winter Hill that you can ride on (short of trespassing to get all the way to the to mast, and in any case you have to double back if you do that) so obviously somewhat appealing, but it's simply not worth it if you then have to funnel people through that sort of junction.

Surely this is just a crash, and could have happenened in the same way whether it was in an event or not. Surely either the driver or the cyclist are at fault, and/or some defect of the general road maintenance or signage. If I'm riding a sportive I don't expect the organisers to warn me of junctions or dangerous bends, that should be done by the road autority. If I pull out into a car then that would be my responsibility, or if a driver pulled out into me I would expect that to be the issue. It is good if event organisers add extra warnings and marshalling, but this is a ride on the open road!

Regarding the Give Way sign, there is another one 100 yards back up the road: https://goo.gl/maps/7T1xDVu9wvK2. (Assuming I've got the correct direction on StreetView.)

I've almost overshot a junction once where the give way lines were completely worn out and I briefly mistook the centre line of the main road as my give way line.

From the street view.

Road markings are poor and should be renewed

Give way sign is far back from the road, obscured by trees until last second?

So if you route a sportive down this hill, it would definitely be worth putting up warning signs.

It is more likely than not that the cyclist just didn't stop at the junction.   That is probably because it is at the bottom of a very steep descent and he just didn't realise how fast he was going or how quickly the junction is reached at the bottom of the slope.   The road at the bottom is quite busy.

When there are cycling events there, usually there are signs at the top of the hill warning cyclists that there is a dangerous junction.

I know that area very well, and I would be amazed if the driver was in any way to blame.   I wouldn't normally suggest limiting where bikes go, but I do think that there is a case that the sportif should take a different route.

Dreadful for all concerned, and I'm sorry to hear of this, but based on what the organiser of the nearrby Audax says, the rider should have stopped.

I organise a similar event, but emphasise to all concerned that it's NOT A RACE, and don't give finishing times in order to minimise the temptation to get a "fast" time.

Sportives tend to be ridden as races by non club riders. Club riders have more experience of group riding and how to ride safely.

Re safety signs, I put none out, the Local Authority signs are perfectly good enough for everyone else, including heavy goods wagons, so why do cyclists need special ones? 

Read the road signs and follow their instructions.

I also don't put route signs up, they have to read the route instructions, which warn of hazards such as steep hills, and also means they slow down.

The job of a marshal can only be to indicate the direction the route goes and to provide a visual presence to other road users that there is something out of the ordinary going on. They cannot and must not, attempt to stop or direct traffic, that is illegal and dangerous.

If the event is effectively planned like a race, the riders will treat it as a race.

If they want to race, join a club and ride a real race, one that complies with all the Laws appertaining to cycle racing on the public highway.

I know nothing about this accident, but I know the road fairly well.  The image taken above is at the bottom of a very steep descent through some trees.  As you can see from the image above, the road markings are badly worn, and there's usually gravel leading up to the give way line.  It's very easy to overshoot this junction.  If a cyclist were to do this, and collide with a car on the more major road, I think it would be fair to place no blame on the driver.  

The first time I encountered this descent on one of our club runs, our rider leader warned of the junction at the bottom and I was still nearly caught out by it.  The most obvious thing that could be done to improve safety here is to repaint the road markings and clear the gravel.

If this collision was a result of the rider failing to give way at the bottom of this hill, then I hope that the investigation will focus on why this junction is so easy to misjudge.  Plenty of riders use this road outside of organised events, and don't have the benefit of even one marshal at the junction.

This story is lifted almost word for word from the Oxford Mail story. The driver was mis-quoted and she has asked the Oxford Mail to correct their story. She said she saw two marshalls along the B-road and not two at the junction as quoted. This explains the contradiction between her account and the relatives account.

It does not sound as though any of the marshalls present ( 1 or 2 ?? ) have attributed blame to the car driver.  

As it was an open course it is hard to know what could be done.  If it wasn't a car it might be a deer or a sheep popping out in front of the rider. 

Hard to know if the coroner is in the blame-the-cyclist game, but he has previously suggested that a bicycle helmet can help if you're hurled a couple of meters in the air by a truck:

http://www.bicyclelaw.com/news/n.cfm/cyclist-jumped-red-light-before-fat...

There's more detail about the crash here: http://www.wheelsuckers.co.uk/profiles/blogs/cyclist-killed-during-oxfor...

Sounds to me like the coroner is exonerating the driver, which implies it was entirely the cyclist's fault? Not sure how the organisers could be responsible, unless they somehow directed these people to crash? Tragic, and most likely avoidable, RTC

"The hearing, at Oxfordshire Coroner's Court, revealed Mr Rowley hit the side of a car at the crossroads on the B4506 Kingston Lisle" - So are they saying the cyclist pulled out int fron of the car and hit the side of it? Seems more likely that the car pulled out in front of the bike and the cyclist slammed into the side of it. We can only hope there were witnesses to see that justice is actually done here.

Hmm, seems like the coroner is blaming the cyclist by saying the driver was an innocent victim here. Not closed roads, so just like any other bike v motorised vehicle RTC:

http://www.bike-events.co.uk/Ride.aspx?id=522
http://www.bike-events.co.uk/Generic.aspx?tid=RideRules

I have no idea what happened on that terrible day and I have nothing but sympathy for those concerned but I hope the result of the inquest isn't to pile another layer of safety requirements on the organisers.