Reflecting on a recent crash.

[bobqzzi]

Water bottles cause many, many crashes.

I'm always paranoid before I take a drink and look around carefully before doing so.

[carbonLORD]

Water bottles cause many, many crashes.

I'm always paranoid before I take a drink and look around carefully before doing so.

I always give people a hard time when they have water bottles in a crit, especially two. Its a half hour-45 minute race pal, you really going to drink that much water?!?

My crit bike has no cages.

[stella-azzurra]

Water bottles should be the least of your worries.

[mattr]

My crit bike has no cages.

Last crit I can remember doing was an hour plus a lap and run at 25 degrees C. Good luck with that.

[robmitchell]

It could have been "just bad luck" shitty things happen to everyone.

Were you really tired when it happened at the end of your ride?
Fatigue can lead to a crash especially if you are toasted tired or thinking about need to get done other than your training ride.
Also certain sunglass frames can block the view ahead if your looking down.

Since you have ridden a lot of miles I am guessing you just relaxed a little too much at the end of your ride or were tired.

It happens to most of us. I almost crashed going up onto my driveway after a long ride when the front tire hit the concrete seam near the mailbox.
It slid just enough to scare me and provide a reminder. Another time I was on hour 4 of a ride and had my head down and looked up in time to
see an oncoming car passing another car in front of it way over in my lane. Scared the crap out of me even though I was way over on the shoulder of the road.
Be careful out there, everyone.

[carbonLORD]

Last crit I can remember doing was an hour plus a lap and run at 25 degrees C. Good luck with that.

Only an hour?

I did 140 km two days ago with no water or food. 4 1/2 hours 30 km average.

Rule #5 man.

No hand off's allowed?

[mattr]

We need a zeroth rule.
Quoting the rules results in a punch to the kidneys.

And no, no feed zone. Not that I fancy trying to grab a waterbottle at 35-40 kph.

[carbonLORD]

We need a zeroth rule.
Quoting the rules results in a punch to the kidneys.

And no, no feed zone. Not that I fancy trying to grab a waterbottle at 35-40 kph.

Thats because it was an hour long crit race.

Lighten up.... I mean, harden up.

[NoiseBoy]

Quoting the rules isn't exactly casually deliberate.

What hasn't been mentioned so far is road positioning. Its something I learnt on motorbikes that is even more important on a bicycle. I would generally behave like a car to be treated like a car. You can massively improve visibility and reduce dangerous overtakes by riding closer to the centreline. It makes you much more visible to cars because they can see you much earlier when pulling out of junction/driveway. When the road ahead is clear, slip over to the side to invite them to pass. Even with sunglasses on, making eye contact with the driver seem to reduce how often I get cut up. I guess because it reminds them you are a human and not just an obstacle.

I have been practicing with water bottles myself, it sometimes results in me waving my bidon around like a weirdo for a few seconds but I get there in the end.

P.s. Riding without water seems a bit foolhardy. All it takes is a swarm of flies and you'll be wretching your guts up. Which is bound to take your mind off the road ahead.

[carbonLORD]

P.s. Riding without water seems a bit foolhardy.

Perhaps, but racing amateur crits with water bottles seems foolish. Its too short a distance and half the field never even uses them anyway.

Now at the Cat 1/2 level, they should know what they are doing by then. Even still, chances are they'll be one out there that makes a mistake and well, another obstacle on the course.

I see it every season thus I practice what I preach.

My ride the other day, I anticipated a short ride but the crew got down to business.

[nathanong87]

I did 140 km two days ago with no water or food. 4 1/2 hours 30 km average.

[barsook77]

Heads UP! Always ...

[jvanv8]

I did 140 km two days ago with no water or food. 4 1/2 hours 30 km average.

I do that regularly too, but I've made a resolution to cut back and try to drink more.
As for looking down, I suppose it's easy for someone at their computer to say, "don't do that! Look up" but hey, we all look down at some point on every ride.
Reduce the tendency to look down by:
- Getting dual sided pedals (like Speedplay or several others) You'll never have to look down in an intersection again.
- Don't worry about you computer. No one said it here, but looking down at a computer is likely more distracting than a water bottle or pedals. I remember my first ride with a power meter in 2000 and after the ride I realized I spent the whole time looking at the screen and was on memory autopilot for the the majority of the ride. Record your ride but don't watch it.
- Anticipate idiots. Treat every automobile as such.
- Know the hazard areas. I once had a tricky area where if I just continued at my current speed I would get killed by someone pulling out into the road 50% of the time... and I'm not exaggerating. Once I realized this, it was almost funny when I noticed the 50% (Oh, your one of those types!)
- Ride less congested roads. They are more fun anyway.
- If you do look down, make sure you are on a long and boring country road and you've gazed ahead to make sure no deer, bear, wild bore, moose, or kangaroos are prancing about. These past few years I've had as many close calls with animals as I have with cars.

But then there is just bad luck, which happens. I've flipped across and smashed 2 windshields of people not looking and once endo'ed over a dog. Hard to predict these situations.

[carbonLORD]

Just giving you a hard time mate. The sensitivity meter in here sometimes...

In all honesty, I met my team for a short 40KM spin session which ended up being a 140km date or I wouldn't have been a bonehead and ridden such distances without proper fuel.

Still, I do not feel carrying 2 water bottles in any crit, (unless a super crit) is necessary. To each his/her own there but I've seen enough bottle mishaps to not want to be that guy and make a mistake.

Anyway, I agree with you on things that can prevent looking down. I've ridden Speedplay for 20 years, my Garmin has an out front mount which really helps keep your eyes on what's ahead and yeah, avoiding the new guy in the group, knowing the potholes ahead and keeping out of trouble are all sound advice.

Another thing that has helped me over the years was training on rollers. Now my cadence, balance and ability to hold a line on the road has never been better.