There was a crash/riders down on the main 1 ride on Saturday 21st. The crash happened behind me and no one really seemed to know what happened (that I spoke to anyway). We all went back and both guys seemed ok and were both insistent that the rest of us keep riding. Which we did, but that and a couple of hills seemed to split the group and only about 8 or 9 of us finished together. Of those that finished together, none of us saw the crash and I don’t believe we knew how the two guys ended up. This had me wondering over the weekend how they were and that they got home safely.

It also raised another thought; what do we do when there is a crash/accident on a group ride. On Saturday, once we knew of the crash, we all made our way back. People were providing assistance and someone had gone up the road to slow down traffic. Both riders seemed ok, but I think one may have hid his head. Both were insistent that they were ok and that the rest of us keep going. Which given what on the face of it didn’t seem to be to serious, we did.

It did get me thinking (albeit after the event) that perhaps we should have done something a bit more. It is a difficult situation as I know when I crash on my MTB I generally want to get back on and not hold up my mates and it is not until later that you really start to feel the damage. This is probably exacerbated when it is a larger group and generally full of people you don’t know. I tend not to want to inconvenience other people. So I would probably just tell people to keep riding, when perhaps I might need some further assistance. It is also difficult for the aid giver, as they don’t know the person and can only do so much to convince people otherwise.

So what should we have done. With the benefit of hindsight, I was thinking we should have:

1. Taken contact information of the injured riders so we could follow up and/or had them send a txt to confirm they got home ok;
2. Waited to make sure that the guys were able to contact their significant other to have them come and collect them;
3. Collected other contact details of riders that saw the crash in case it was needed for insurance purposes etc. (I guess the forum/blog could probably be used to find people).

Do we need to report crashes to the club (I’m not sure who to though). Is there something we should do on behalf of the club if a more serious crash occurs? I guess a lot of the above is common sense, but you often forget things at the time.

Perhaps this is more of an issue for main 1 and fast as we don’t really seem to have a nominated ride leader. So there is no real one person in charge (for want of a better phrase) to take control of the situation.

Clint