Video: Horrific crash as cyclist hits velodrome starting gate that officials failed to remove

'Group riding 101 rookie mistake'

Agreed...had it been a rookie group ride instead of a pro track 2-up.

+ she's wearing an aero helmet that covers her ears, so hearing a false start would be hard. I wager the second gun didn't have a corresponding one on the other side of the track, so they would have been nearly 100 yards away. I'm not surprised either rider heard it.

+ she's wearing an aero helmet that covers her ears, so hearing a false start would be hard. I wager the second gun didn't have a corresponding one on the other side of the track, so they would have been nearly 100 yards away. I'm not surprised either rider heard it.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but that's all on her. She's got her head down staring at the lead riders back wheel. Group riding 101 rookie mistake right there. Had she had her head up she would've begun reacting when the lead rider reacted instead of two seconds later when she lifts her head. Hope she heals up soon but it's pretty shite that the article points fault at the officials when really, it's all on the rider in this one.

That's what the flags are for, in any kind of racing you need to be alert to the dangers or you become a danger yourself (or to yourself, as illustrated). Hopefully she'll make a quick recovery, but you can't blame the officials for such a schoolboy error.

Poor woman!
Hope she makes a full recovery,that looked fairly nasty!

Poor woman!
Hope she makes a full recovery,that looked fairly nasty!

Watching the video it looks like she could've been lucky and just flipped over and winded herself (catching the kneecap on the way). Fingers crossed she's OK and I don't care what her frame was made of.

This is why I use a rubber frame. Unlike carbon, steel, aluminium, titanium or bamboo it simply bends in a crash. Plus it has the advantage that the flexibility in the bottom bracket means than I am never going fast enough to injure myself.

See - that was much more interesting than a story about a professional athlete having a nasty crash that could impact her career.

Well this is what happens when you ride an aluminium bike into a stationary object... erm a car.

Aluminium Frame 0 - Carbon forks 1.

Not that I'm advocating one or another.

As for Irene Aravena the frame material is irrelevant. What caused her injury was the impact with the track floor. A metal frame would only act as a crumple zone if she had been attached to the bike. It serves as a good example of why we wear seat belts in cars. al-a Newtons first law - an object will remain at rest or continue to travel at a constant speed unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. In her case that unbalanced force was unfortunately the provided by the track floor.

As for the track officials, its not clear from the video whether there was only one red flag. Surely, as soon as the false start was noted red flags should have been deployed in more than one location, certainly not right in-front of the start gate!

Hope she has a speedy recovery, which is the main thing of course.

The snapping of the frame probably helps her here because it dissipates the force of the collision. I imagine if she was riding steal she might have been thrust down on the track harder and maybe taken a broken collarbone.

It's pretty clear she neither heard the false start, nor the starting blocks. She might look at her team mate also for not paying attention until too late also.

Anyway, that's academic. I hope that she makes a speedy recovery and is soon back on her bike and loving it!

I once rode a homemade steel bike over a six bricker ramp and it snapped into two pieces (but not before clearing 5 local kids from the neighbourhood lay down behind it)
Lets end this argument right now.

What does it matter that the bike snapped?

A steel frame can absorb a lot of energy in a frontal impact, through the bending of the tubing, just like the crumple zone of a car. If you get hit from behind, the accident is also more survivable if you're on a steel frame, especially if you're using traditional spoked wheels.

Also worth considering is that carbon can shatter on impact, meaning potential secondary injury through being "stabbed" or lacerated, either by jagged tube ends or shards of this material.

As everyone knows, even the highest quality carbon components, made by the best manufacturers for the best riders, under the strictest quality control procedures, can be prone to catastrophic failure, and yet many lesser riders are riding parts of unknown provenance, with an unknown lifespan, and often 2nd hand or from bikes that have previously been involved in accidents.

Carbon is great when used under controlled conditions, but use on the public highway, with so much overwhelming anecdotal evidence of component or frame failure, and with the potential for causing death or injury to third parties, just makes me a little apprehensive on group rides.

This might seem impertinent and not the main issue in this story (shocking incompetence, hope she gets well soon etc etc) but that is a very nice looking velodrome.

It was a false start. However the Chilean team didn't realise and continued to go full gas building up to speed. At the last second Rider 1 sees the official with the flag and swings up, there's no time to warn Rider 2 who's view will have been completely blocked. She had no chance, no matter what.

The gate should have been removed but it was obviously left there due to the false start; I guess the gate movers just thought the teams would roll round to start again.

As for all the expert materials scientists claiming failure profiles for different frame materials...

Hope the injured rider heals fully.

wtf were they doing????? inexperienced or not, how hard is it to work out that the start gate needs to be taken off the track? If it was the US they would be getting sued....

Lets hope she recovers quickly and completely.

Steel v carbon? Really?
I mean, really?

The chap with the red flag really didn't help by obscuring her view.

Hope to hell it turns out to be less serious than it looks.

Nasty. Think her team mate could have done more to warn her as could have the officials.

Why the hell was that left there? They didn't seem to be try too hard to remove it either. Inexperience or not, i think almost anyone can see that it shouldn't be left on the track they are racing around.

I hope that the rider recovers well and that it isn't the end of her career

Also, I've seen metal frames snap. I've seen alloy bars snap. I've not seen an aeroplane wing snap though, either metal or carbon.

So far my investigation is inconclusive.

Instead of bitching at each other don't you think we should be extending our best wishes to Irene Aravena and our sympathies to Estefania Nunez?

Who gives a shit about the failure profiles of steel, carbon or titanium. The material that the frame was made of matters not a jot. They all would have failed. They all would have provided no protection to the rider who would have been experiencing the most shocking agony after the initial shock passed.

Get some bloody perspective!

Because, of course, Ti can be ridden into solid objects worry free.