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news
Hardknott Pass - licensed CC BY-ND 2.0 by kenugee on FlickrCyclist recalls moment her brakes failed on Hardknott Pass descent during Fred Whitton Challenge
A cyclist whose brakes failed while she was descending the Hardknott Pass during the Fred Whitton Challenge in May this year will relive her ordeal this evening on the More4 TV show, Emergency Helicopter Medics (9pm).
Vivienne Sherry, from Preston, had ridden almost 100 miles of the event when she reached the Hardknott Pass – rated 10/10 for difficulty by author Simon Warren in his route guide on the Fred Whitton website, and followed by what he describes as a “terrifying descent.”
Recalling that climb, Ms Sherry said, “I remember it being so steep that I actually had to get off my bike and walk for some of it,” reports nwemail.co.uk.
But the 36-year-old realised that something was wrong as she speeded up on the descent towards Wrynose Bottom, and was shouting at people to get out of her way.
“I pressed my brakes, and nothing happened,” she explained. “I just wasn’t slowing down. I didn’t make the corner and ended up hitting a rock and coming off my bike, landing in a gulley.
“I was lying on the ground just looking up at the sky and I could hear my friend screaming. She told me not to move while she ran for help.”
A helicopter from the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) was alerted, and Ms Sherry said: “I can remember the air ambulance coming for me – they were with me very quickly and they were great.”
She was taken to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and despite having extensive cuts and grazes did not sustain more serious injury.
“The worst thing was that I had took so much skin off all over my body,” she said. “My arms are still a bit of a mess from the accident, but you can’t have everything, and I feel really lucky.”
After being discharged from hospital, she went to stay with her mother and sister who provided support.
“I couldn’t even get dressed,” she said. “Four weeks later I managed to go back home once my bandages were off.
“When I had to get my bandages changed and cleaned it was just awful and so painful,” she added.
Ms Sherry was back on her bike three weeks after the crash, although she said that the pain was so intense she could only ride for one mile.
“I was in tears, but I tried my best to get back on,” she said. “It’s been a mental struggle as I worry that I might fall back off and wonder if it will happen again.
“It makes me nervous but hopefully it will settle down soon.”
One of the most popular sportives in the country and considered by many to be the toughest, with the route including some of the country’s most feared climbs, the Fred Whitton Challenge was first held in 1999.
It was named after Fred Whitton, racing secretary of the Lakes Road Club, who died from cancer at the age of 50 in 1998.
After the inaugural event in 1999 it has been held every year since, other than in 2001 when it was cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth epidemic.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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45 comments
It's not irrelevant on campag brakes, it's just that the quick release is at the lever rather than at the caliper. That was going to be my next question - whether they were campag calipers - but I'm guessing not as most cannondales I've seen are shimano equipped.
As an aside, my single speed has quick releases at both the levers and the calipers, so there's a lot to remember there.
When you release a Campag, all you do is increase the reach at the lever. It is a clever piece of design because there is no impact upon the ability of the caliper to grip the rim (the only exception being if you are unable to reach the lever in its released state). In other words, if you were to pull the lever to, say, 1 cm of the bar, the brake effect is the same whether the adjuster is released or not released.
Shimano road calipers are different in this regard.
I've only owned one Shimano-equipped (recent 105) road bike, buit I'm relatively sure that it releases via a cam near the caliper which effectively increases cable length (this is what the Campag system explicitely does not do) and so adjusts the clearance at the caliper. In other words, if you had released the brake adjuster to change a tyre and had subsequently forgotten to reset it, you have to pull the lever further to get your normal level of braking. Were your brakes to be poorly adjusted in the first place,and the lever is now allowed to come all the way to the bar, you might be in serious trouble.
Please correct me if I am wrong about the Shimano part. I know that am not wrong about the workings of recent Campag (call it 2010 Chorus onwards) caliper brakes.
Not closing the pads after putting a wheel back is irrelevant on campag brakes. As far as I know that is a Shimano problem.
I watched the whole programme and am still none the wiser as to the alleged brake failure. Pity. At least we know it had nothing to do with discs melting, hydraulic fluid boiling, etc. If I can find the report on a braking experiment I'll put the link on. It would give you an insight it what the cause might have been.
Not so wild theory - she'd punctured earlier and fixed it, and forgot to close the quick release when she put the wheel back. I've done it myself.
The programme showed a very brief picture of the bike (actual footage taken from the crash scene, not a reconstruction). It was a Cannondale road bike, caliper rim brakes. One side of the forks was broken mid way along it's length but the front brake caliper was closed. Couldn't see the rear brake in that short image of the bike, the shot was concentrating on the obviously broken front end.
Rim brakes in the picture accompanying this story.
https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/18085694.tv-show-explain-brake-failure-le...
Info at last! Thanks.
Mechanical discs would be my guess too. Happened to me in a much less scary situation, and it was still very unnerving, adjusted the pads manually and was ok for getting back home and ordering new ones.
I don't think you'd need both brakes to fail at once. If the front failed, for whatever reason that was (can we please get this information?), the back alone might well be unable to stop you without locking up and throwing you off.
Pure speculation here, but single piston mechanical discs can do this. If the fixed pad wears down (over a long hilly ride like the Fred, quite possible) so it no longer sticks out of the caliper there could be very little braking force.
I'm not an expert on modern hydraulic disc brakes, indeed I don't know if the lady had those fitted, but on cars, when descending steep mountain passes, the brake fluid can get so hot it can boil, ruining the seals and introducing air into the fluid. Whenever I've driven, cycled, walked over Hardknott & Wrynose passes, the two aromas you always smell are the brakes on the descents, and clutch plates on the ascents. I'm sure the same can be said for cycle disc brakes as they are the same thing, albeit smaller. Also, when you pull discs brakes on for long periods, you can experience brake fade. Much better to apply short pulls on the lever continuously to regulate your speed.
Two brakes on one hydraulic system could fail at the same time, I guess, but two separately operated brakes failing at the same instant? I have trouble believing that. I've read about what a tough climb it is but <300m is not that big a descent. As EddyBerckx says, we need more info.
How did the brakes fail?
I'm sure most people will emphasise with how it feels to go down a hill without brakes, but, this being a bike website, a few more technical details would be appreciated...
Scary...how the hell did her brakes fail?? We need this info road.cc!!!
Just speculating but perhaps wearing out pads on earlier descents and so then running out of lever travel by this point in the ride?
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