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Sea Otter slows to a crawl over safety concerns
Sitting at the start-finish line before the Sea Otter’s opening Redwood City road race, Saturn’s Chris Horner was concerned. Relaxed, of course, as he always is, but concerned.
In lieu of the Sea Otter’s traditional Fort Ord road race, which was replaced after permit issues hindered a full road closure, the Northern California stage race designed a new circuit race, in the hometown of Sea Otter chief operating officer Rick Sutton.
But many of the riders that had pre-ridden the tight and twisty residential course, with its sharp, short climbs and narrow, technical streets, felt it was too dangerous. 7UP’s John Lieswyn had even suggested boycotting the stage, and, subsequently, the entire Sea Otter stage race, for safety concerns; riders complained that the course contained too many intersections and unprotected driveways through the heavily trafficked 10-mile circuit, just south of San Francisco.
But Horner hadn’t gone that far. In top form, and fresh off his win at Redlands, he, Gord Fraser [Health Net], and a few other riders did feel strongly enough to pull Sutton aside for a pre-race conference.
“Word I have it is that there’s already a lot of cars on the course,” said Horner, who was in full contact with a team car currently on the course, supporting the Saturn women. “It’s a beautiful course,” he continued, “but they just need to make it safer, and the only way to make it safer is to eliminate the cars.
“But you can definitely help make it safer by at least eliminating the time cut, so if guys get dropped they don’t have fear that they’ve got to go as fast as they can on the descent to stay in the race. They can stay on the right side of the road and be a little cautious, and just stay in the race and finish.
“It wouldn’t upset us if guys get dropped and [race officials] want to pull them and pro-rate their time. It ain’t going to change our form any if someone rode four laps instead of six. It’s not going to mean that all of a sudden tomorrow they’ve turned into Superman and they’re fresh. That’s not the case. And if they are fresh, what difference does it make if they’re pro-rated and they’re given a ten-minute time loss. So what difference does it make?”
After discussing it with the UCI officials on hand, Sutton, and elite road stage race director Terry Tupper, agreed, and as the women’s race came to a close — with a surging Genevieve Jeanson (RONA-Esker), fresh off her victory at Redlands, taking a field sprint against Lyne Bessette (Saturn) and Dede Barry (T-Mobile) — the men prepared to race.
What the men didn’t know, however, was that a poorly marshalled turn on the course had caused a crash in the front group, taking down T-Mobile’s Kimberly Bruckner and Amber Neben. “I thought that the course would be closed, and clear,” Jeanson said, “but some corners, we were cornering, and a truck was parked right there. They should have put some fences on the forks [of the roads]. When the T-Mobiles crashed, it was because one rider was going on the left, and the course was on the right, so we screamed ‘Hey! You have to go right, you have to go right!’ So she turned, and all the other riders were there, and ‘wham!’ They should have put some fences on the road. But it was an exciting course.”
But as the field rolled out, an anxious tone spread throughout the race caravan: the men still weren’t convinced the course was race-safe, and would soft pedal the first few laps, perhaps the first four, before any racing would begin. Thoughts of Garrett Lemire, a California rider killed in a head-on collision with a car earlier this year at the Tucson Bicycle Classic, weighed heavily on some.
Just in from the women’s race, John Berlinger of Mavic Service Courses, described the situation on the course.
“The road itself is awesome,” he said. “It’s super twisty and really tight, kind of like a European course, hedgerows and everything on both sides, and little drop offs. There are pretty good crowds, but mainly because we’re driving through their front yards. The parked cars are kind of sketchy, and there are things like signposts and mailboxes, which are pretty normal, but they kind of stick out a little more.
“We were right behind the main group, and [course marshalling] was okay. The first lap, some girls missed a couple of turns, and went straight when they were supposed to turn, but they were able to catch back on. But it was the groups that were behind us that were having trouble. One of our motors came in with five riders to the finish line, and in the last kilometer, they almost got hit eight times by cars pulling out onto the course. The police presence is very heavy up front, but it ends right behind the main field, and it’s everything out back that’s really unprotected. In fact, the [Mavic] service bikes are moving ahead of the riders to keep the intersections clear so they can keep riding.”
THE ART OF THE DEAL
But the men would not keep riding. After two laps of a neutralized race, in one surreal instant, the peloton came to a halt on a narrow residential street, as it headed up the climb for a third time. Race radio discussions had begun reporting that the riders would not race any of the laps, and a confused field took the initiative to stop, regroup and discuss the possibility of a protest.
For nearly ten minutes, conversational chaos ensued as race officials met with team representatives such as Horner and Jonathon Vaughters (Prime Alliance), until it grew clear that the peloton needed a spokesman. Without question, all eyes looked to Fraser.
“People were looking to me to say publicly, and loudly, what everyone’s concerns were,” Fraser later explained.
Still on his bike, Fraser openly discussed the matter with Tupper and Chief Commissaire Wayne Pomorio. As the moments ticked by, the possibility of a flare up between the different sides looked real, but never materialized. Instead, calmly, both Tupper and Pomorio tried to convince the field to continue racing.
“Think of the impact tomorrow, the next day, next month, the next year,” Pomorio said to the riders, while Tupper implored the group to save his race.
“As a group,” said Tupper, “I want you to know that, in my heart, I believe that nobody is going to get hurt. Having said that, I want you to consider the whole picture of what we’re doing here. Right now, we’re possibly losing our cops, one of the best groups of cops I’ve ever worked with. If we keep riding the race like this, the cops are going to say ‘They’re on a training ride,’ and get out of here.”
But the peloton remained united. There would be no racing. An Australian rider from the LeMond Fitness team best explained to Tupper the perspective of a professional bike racer. “The course is changing because of the rolling enclosure,” the Aussie said. “One lap there’s a car, the next lap maybe a truck. I know you say ‘Yeah, we won’t have problems,’ but the guy in Tucson, it was a puncture, a crash, a freak accident, and he’s dead. I know we take this risk as bike riders, that there is that slight chance, but we just feel that today, on this course, on these tight corners, on the dangerous hills, that it’s just too much of a risk to be taking.” Finally, with the possibility of losing the police motorcycles looming, Tupper conceded. “Just so you all know how I stand on it,” he said, “I am personally… a little disappointed. Not in your evaluation of the course — I’m disappointed that you view this course as unsafe — but I’m disappointed in bike racing right now, because I want to see a bike race go on, and I know you all do as well, so if we can reach a compromise, let’s shorten it so we can keep our road closures.”
In the end, Fraser assured Tupper that the people of Redwood City would still get a show; the peloton would soft pedal a fourth lap, and, just before the finishing straight in downtown Redwood City, each team would send one predetermined rider up to the front, to contest a sprint. Fraser, however, would not be one of those to sprint for the stage. “I felt that it would be hypocritical for me,” he said, “as a top sprinter, to do a mass sprint at the end after I was one of the top guys, in terms of decision-making. Of course I’m not going to put myself into that sprint situation. There was a stage win on the line, okay, it’s a very unique stage win, but of course I’m going to take myself out of the sprint.”
Although not a sprinter, U.S. Postal’s Floyd Landis voluntarily took himself out of the running. “No way,” he smiled, “I’m not getting anywhere near that.”
NEVER MIND
At the finish, it was Fraser’s teammate Mike Sayers taking the sprint, breaking away from the word “go” and crossing the line ahead of Sierra Nevada’s Matt Dubberly and Schroeder Iron’s Miguel Meza.But the sprint would be for naught; after the podium ceremony, a commissaire panel reviewed the situation and declared the race void.
Pomorio, the chief commissaire, explained the panel’s decision. “Officially,” he said, “what that means is that the stage is cancelled. No prizes will be awarded for the stage, and the GC prize list will be reduced. Nobody will be eliminated by time cuts today. Tomorrow is day one, except for riders that didn’t start today. We’ve used rule 1.2.068, which just states that if a race is ridden at an abnormally low hourly average speed, the commissaire panel may decide to reduce or cancel the prizes.”
In the official race communiqué, the explanation reads: “The Commissaries’ Panel has decided to cancel Stage 1 for non-competitiveness. No riders will be eliminated by the time cut. No stage prize will be awarded for this stage. No General Classification award will be made. The General Classification Prize List will be reduced by 25%. (1.2.068).”
And in a press release issued later, Sea Otter Classic president and chief executive officer Frank Yohannan wrote, “The Emerald Hills course was previewed by our race director, who is a respected national figure in road race organization. In addition, the course was previewed and approved by pro riders and other officials. Prior to the race we met with personnel from the Redwood City Council and other city employees, including police officials, in an effort to prepare the course and conditions for the safe conduct of the race.
“Yet this is a new course, and on the day of the race there were safety concerns that were not previously apparent and did not emerge until 150 riders were out racing on the course. When it did become apparent that there were legitimate safety issues, our race director conferred with the riders, and all agreed to neutralize the stage. After the finish we conferred with the race officials and considered the rules of the International Cycling Union, under which this race is run, and the only appropriate and legal recourse was to nullify the stage result. This is the fairest solution for all competitors. It enables everybody to start fresh tomorrow, on a level playing field, and nobody goes into tomorrow with an advantage.”
GOOD INTENTIONS
In the hour between the finish and the panel’s decision, emotions were high amongst the team vehicles. While opinions varied, from “I wanted to race, but whatever” to “There aren’t enough tow trucks in town to make that course safe,” the overwhelming majority of the riders supported the decision, agreeing that the conditions were just too dangerous.
“They were like ‘Oh, we’re killing the race,’” said Prime Alliance’s Michael Creed, of the promoters’ initial efforts to persuade the field to continue. “We’re not killing the race. [They] killed the race. To win the race overall it’s four hundred dollars. It’s like seven dollars to get tenth in the stage. It’s insulting. Nobody here wants to die. We’ve already had two deaths this year, and we’re dedicating the prize money to the family of the guy who died in Tucson.”
But, with the stage now nullified, just what will actually happen to that prize money? For now, it sits with the promoters.
“The riders need to be in pow wow with the organization on that sort of thing,” Tupper said. “In other words, it’s our money as well, and we’ve chosen to give it to them for a bike race. What we end up doing with the prize money for them, I don’t know, but you can’t make a decision without including the organization on that decision.”
For “Pops” Fraser, the day was summed up best as an experiment that failed. “Potentially,” Fraser said, “it is a good course, but there are certain things that have to happen on a course like that. Number one, there has to be full course closure, if not, a rolling enclosure. They couldn’t possibly try to have that course clear.
“The second concern was the riders that were going to get dropped, which was a lot of guys if we raced from the word ‘go.’ They were going to be outside the security bubble, as they said – that was their term. They were forcing dropped riders to obey traffic signals and stop signs, and at the beginning of a stage race there’s a time cut issue and the rider off the back is going to be working very hard to try and stay in contact, to race the next day. I think it’s an unrealistic request from anybody to tell these riders they have to stop at a stoplight or intersections that aren’t patrolled. It wasn’t realistic. It was a good try, it’s a nice course, but if they’re going to have a course like that, they have to ensure safety of the riders. And a fair race, really.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
Dan Osipow, U.S. Postal team manager:
“It was a tough course, a twisty course, but with parked cars on blind turns and a little bit of a lack of being able to really follow, left, right, that spelled trouble. But I do think that initially, from the beginning, it would have been a smart if a decision was made prior to, as opposed to in the middle. If it was a parked car issue, or a safety issue, I think it would have been smart if they’d gotten together as a group and said it beforehand, as opposed to midstream.
“Sitting down like that doesn’t help anybody. The race looks bad, the event now looks bad, and the teams look bad. There was a buzz going around beforehand on the safety of the event, even starting last night, and I think you make that decision prior to starting, as opposed to starting and stopping now, which, in my opinion, once you stop you can’t really re-start.”
Nathan O’Neill, Saturn:
“It wasn’t actually a hard effort, but a lot of nervous energy was spent, because a lot of the race we didn’t know what was going on, we were trying our best to keep everybody calm. It was chaos, but it all worked out for the best.
“Given the experience of what has happened in the past, that was just a disaster waiting to happen. Especially during the first race of the tour, when there’s no GC already established, everyone’s up for a stage win, there’s going to be a lot more desperation in the way the guys are riding. It was just a bad mix of everything.”
Rick Sutton, Sea Otter chief operating officer:
“We felt we were in a position to run a competitive race. In the women’s race, I saw a couple of issues, but given it was the first time working with this group of rolling enclosure officers, and working with my staff and what not, after the first lap of the women’s race, we felt that the race was running well.
“What I told the managers and riders, is that I understood their point of view, and that I wanted them to come to Monterey for the next three days and race strong and have a good time. Some times things happen in bike racing, but much like any relationship, one bad day after thirteen years does not a bad event make, and I don’t think they feel that way either. We’re just going to move forward and have three strong days of racing.
“Redwood City is very happy with what happened. They want us to come back. They understand that we’ll probably have to do some course design changes, and provide some more infrastructure from a police support standpoint, but the end result, is that we had a good women’s race, we had a canceled men’s race, and most people are happy with the end result, in terms of all of the contributing factors to moving forward, both on behalf of the city, on behalf of the Sea Otter Classic, and on behalf of the hundred and thirty or forty riders that were racing today.”
Gord Fraser, Health Net:
“I was very proud of all the teams – everyone got on the same page. For some Bay Area teams, like OFOTO, WebCor, and us [Health Net], - even Postal Service - this is our hometown race, we have a lot riding on it, and they showed tremendous class in adopting the attitude of the entire peloton. I think a special nod of the head to those teams is appropriate.”
Terry Tupper, Sea Otter elite road stage race director:
“The [riders] were very willing to accept that we had issues as well. We could lose the city, we could lose this stage race if we dealt with it incorrectly. They rode two more laps, they sprinted, and they gave the spectators a show, because that was a real threat. I would have liked to see a bike race, but let me say this: What we got today was way better than having continued the race and somebody getting severely injured.”
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