Impaled by tt bars? I hate to think really
Maybe the ‘significant medical event’ precipitated the crash rather than resulted from it.
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It’s a morbid discussion but if I imagine a head on from a TT bike & a moto then the TT rider might be like a projectile & could be helmet on helmet with the TT riders load going down the spine & moto worse being perpendicular. 100kph+ combined speeds.
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Been wondering it myself, wasn’t obvious if another moto hit him but stayed up. There should have been witnesses though despite them racing.
I thought maybe he fell awkwardly?
I just can’t get over how far across the road he was.
Not sure at all. I’ve been impaled by my own TT bars and it did a lot of damage but most of the moto riders are on ADV type bikes, so there’s a fair bit of bike out front. I don’t know, the whole thing seems tragically freakish.
Maybe a major cardiac issue/response as a result of the crash? Especially if he’s 70?
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This was my thinking as well.
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These aren’t videos of the incident, but I believe footage from before showing the motos weaving in and out of the oncoming AG cyclists. Knowing what then happens, it makes me feel a little sick. So many others racers must be so thankful they weren’t victims. How on earth, as a human being, do the moto pilots think what they’re doing is in any way safe?
https://twitter.com/Fotobiene/status/1665365724267786245?t=deDX4tk01NvvJTN39PNQ0A&s=19
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Screenshot on ST shows the moto completely on the wrong side of the road, not weaving at all.
Yes, I know. But what I’m saying is that people are criticising the particular moto pilot. But they were all at it. That’s therefore much more indicative of a clear failure of the race director. Some of those near misses are so scary to watch.
Before I saw the others, I was under the incorrect impression it was the lead AG cyclist who got hit and the moto pilot got caught out by assuming the road was clear. But that’s not the case at all. It must have just been a gap in the stream of cyclists that he got horribly wrong in terms of his ability to pass the line of motos
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With you there. The environment looked wrong with lots of people saying so and then ten minutes later or something the crash happens. Context is important.
As I said above and jorgan and Matt will probably confirm, the bits by the river were pretty narrow, even without the motos I thought there was the possibility of a head on, people riding with their heads down and crossing the centre line trying to overtake.
Still, really sad for all involved, culpable or not
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Seems crazy there are that many motos in the first place, surely not that much demand to watch an ironman
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The course is really narrow in places, if you look at my report from 2019, I almost got hit by a moto in a different section.
The accident occurred close to the 180 degree turn around. It is very narrow and there are no cones between lanes. In fact it is so narrow that the motors had to slow down behind riders and wait for a space to pass.
The number of motos meant that there was a high risk of this type of crash. The Moto was passing other motos and the pros, this would leave max 1.5m gap for oncoming riders (probably less). AG rider must have been close to the front as not too far behind pros, head down and not looking at what’s in front. The AG athlete was riding at 45kph, moto would be doing 60kph to pass the pros, so impact was over 100kph
I think Hamburg is a shit bike course, it’s bumpy and narrow with cobbles, brick surface and train tracks. It’s simply not suited to a massive race
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In Germany lots of people watch triathlon, Challenge Roth gets big audience on national TV. Since Hamburg was both the European Championship as well as Jan Frodeno’s return to racing, it would have been very popular.
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You can see the AG that comes through on screen at about 13s, has to slow and move to avoid a moto. That many motos next to the pro men is ridiculous.
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Don’t know how much I was influenced by the accident but the run course coverage looked really tight too, with the camera weaving around athletes and people. I know it’s not the same risks but it speaks to the “the course can’t handle this many people” message.
Edit
FYI the bike is totalled but the di2 might be recoverable 
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Massive performance from Jonnie yesterday I thought, I’d encourage anyone interested to watch the bike to run part of the race on YouTube or triathlon.tv
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saw it 1st hand - old fella did well but the Spaniard just had the extra gas at the end
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