Cyclist dies after crashing on Wrynose Pass descent during Coast To Coast In A Day sportive

Kendalred wrote:

Awful news to hear anyone has lost their life on what is essentially a sportive. Even more so given it happened only a few miles from where I am typing this.

Hardknott and Wrynose have become the twin challenges of more and more events around here - even after the C2C in a day went over it on Saturday, there was the Triathlon X which used the Fred Whitton route as the bike leg later in the day. I just wonder if the companies who put these events on might think twice about using it in future.

Having said that you could quite easily say this about any part of any sportive - the potential to lose life is never zero.

While this is obviously tragic, I think it would be a shame to see these passes banned. I don't know anything about the organisation of this particular event (though it sounds as if the passes were closed to other traffic, a sensible precaution), but I know the Fred Whitton organisation takes safety very seriously, with prominent warnings about all the descents in advance in the pre-event materials, and clear signage and marshalling on the day. E.g. "take great care on the descent down Wrynose. It’s not quite as steep and twisty as Hardknott, but it’s a longer descent and you’ve got to keep control of your speed, since the road surface is bad and there are some very tight turns near the bottom. Many riders have ruined their ride by coming to grief here – look at the state of Dave Boyle’s bike after he crashed here in 2004 [picture of snapped frame]."      

quiff wrote:

Kendalred wrote:

Awful news to hear anyone has lost their life on what is essentially a sportive. Even more so given it happened only a few miles from where I am typing this.

Hardknott and Wrynose have become the twin challenges of more and more events around here - even after the C2C in a day went over it on Saturday, there was the Triathlon X which used the Fred Whitton route as the bike leg later in the day. I just wonder if the companies who put these events on might think twice about using it in future.

Having said that you could quite easily say this about any part of any sportive - the potential to lose life is never zero.

While this is obviously tragic, I think it would be a shame to see these passes banned. I don't know anything about the organisation of this particular event (though it sounds as if the passes were closed to other traffic, a sensible precaution), but I know the Fred Whitton organisation takes safety very seriously, with prominent warnings about all the descents in advance in the pre-event materials, and clear signage and marshalling on the day. E.g. "take great care on the descent down Wrynose. It’s not quite as steep and twisty as Hardknott, but it’s a longer descent and you’ve got to keep control of your speed, since the road surface is bad and there are some very tight turns near the bottom. Many riders have ruined their ride by coming to grief here – look at the state of Dave Boyle’s bike after he crashed here in 2004 [picture of snapped frame]."      

I agree 100%.

For info, the organisers (Open Adventure) are extremely experienced in running this, and other long distance/extreme events. It will always be the case that these things through their very nature are riskier than normal. One of their events is a 50 mile top-to-bottom run in the Lakes, which last year had horrendous weather (I know as a tri club mate of mine did it and came second!).

Events like these always highlight the dangers of the terrain and the importance of the need for good equipment and the actual ability to take it on. Despite all this there is still the risk of unforeseen circumstances leading to tragedy, no matter how well prepared you are.

I notice that the registration for 2020 for the C2C was supposed to be today, but the website now says the entry date is tbc. Hardly surprising.

ChancerOnABike wrote:

Terrible news. Thoughts are with the family.

A guy died during the Ariegoise sportive in France in saturday. Temps hit 42deg and apparently the prefecture cancelled the event mid event as hey couldn’t cope with the amount of people falling ill due to the heat.

 

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/ariege/foix/mort-cycli...

I was in the Ariégeoise on Saturday - it's my local cyclo-sportive, with a second-to-none organisation (800 volunteer helpers). It was hot OK (38°C on the final slopes of the 2nd climb) but not impossible (I'm 70 and I was mananging). The guy who died was 53, local and had already done it 13 times and was apparently pretty fit. It was the classic situation where you needed to be watching your average speed so as not to overreach physically and to be well hydrated. Someone else crashed badly on the final descent. On the other hand, quite a few people burst their inner tubes (everyone had already had a previous mail from the organisers warning of such a risk) on the Mur de Peguère descent (TdF's going up it this year) I was glad I had disc brakes.