Diagnose the fall

[mombus]

can anyone point to a cause of the fall that you'll see in the first 10 seconds of this video? I've watched it about 15 times and I still can't figure it out. I also can't figure out who it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMJQZJ2Eqs
And the video is pretty good if you haven't seen it or didn't catch the race

 

[ingsve]

It looks like he leans to far over in the corner and the wheels start to slip so that he would fall on his left side but he jerks the bike to try and keep himself up but it goes to far and the bike jumps out to the left and he falls to the other side instead.

 

[true legend]

It is Serpa

 

[mombus]

I also noticed a change in the pavement right where he falls. He looks like such a newb though.

 

[Jamsque]

Yeah, looks like his wheels started to wash out on him when he rode over the white paint triangles, and he over-corrected.

 

[Boeing]

cold play sux

 

[spalco]

Looks like his backwheel slipped and then while trying to correct he was caught on a bump in the road.

 

[notcredible]

I also noticed a change in the pavement right where he falls. He looks like such a newb though.

Yes, the road level drops causing his front wheel to get a tiny bit of 'airtime'.
The resistance given from the road surface is suddenly taken away for a split second which results in him rotating the bars too far.

 

[Cobblestoned]

He was sleeping or exhausted
Wrong balance in corner + white (dusty) roadmark and little edge, correction resulting in something like a highsider.

 

[ergmonkey]

I seem to remember when they showed the replays on tv that one wheel lost traction going over some gravel/debris while the bike was banked in the corner; the wheel slid out for a moment and then caught traction again on the normal pavement; when the wheel got solid traction again, the bike had jacknifed enough that the two wheels were not moving in the same direction; this resulted in Serpa getting launched.

 

[max_powers]

I can't figure out what caused this crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJzbW2cLbU

 

[fatsprintking]

Yes, the road level drops causing his front wheel to get a tiny bit of 'airtime'.
The resistance given from the road surface is suddenly taken away for a split second which results in him rotating the bars too far.

This seems about right. He has a mini "loose" of his front wheel, but his attempts to catch this leads to an over correction. When the front wheel grips again his bars are way off line and he essentially high sides.

The diagnosis would be "over correction of intial loss of front wheel traction".

 

[ergmonkey]

... he essentially high sides.

Yep. And thank God road bicycles don't high side like sport bikes. Ouch.

 

[For The World]

I can't figure out what caused this crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJzbW2cLbU

I wish I could zoom... ENHANCE!

However I can't. I've no idea how he could have crashed. Perhaps the same as Andy Schleck - just slipped on something. Wrong place, wrong time.

 

[mombus]

I can't figure out what caused this crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJzbW2cLbU

He had the win, but decided to lunge anyway... probably because he thought it was the cool thing to do or something. Problem is, that was the first race he'd won in his life and wasn't accustomed to necking out. This results in a huge bummer for him. My advice: next time don't get fancy when it's not necessary.

 

[Ildabaoth]

I can't figure out what caused this crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFJzbW2cLbU

Something similar happened to me once (like 40 km/h slower, tho). Perhaps he slightly released the grip with his left hand while he was leaning forward. And then he probably moved his center of mass a little bit to his left, so it wasn't properly over the vertical wheels' axis. That provoked a bit of torque. Not too much, but his hand wasn't correcting it by holding the bike and he wasn't on his saddle yet. At least he won.

 

[Jukebox]

I remember an article stating that he did not wear gloves that day and his sweaty hands slipped off of the bars.

 

[NickBVK]

Bit of a wheel slip on the white paint and then he appears to overcompensate

 

[luckylegs]

can anyone point to a cause of the fall that you'll see in the first 10 seconds of this video? I've watched it about 15 times and I still can't figure it out. I also can't figure out who it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMJQZJ2Eqs
And the video is pretty good if you haven't seen it or didn't catch the race

Love the first youtube comment,

"I can't figure out why this song was matched with this footage...cycling and coldplay are like oil and water. Did your girlfriend break up with you right before you made this???"

 

[ultimobici]

I also noticed a change in the pavement right where he falls. He looks like such a newb though.

The "newb" was José Serpa who had earlier won the Tour of Lankawi.

 

[nevada]

Tub rolled.

 

[ultimobici]

Tub rolled.

And then magically reseated?

 

[nevada]

And then magically reseated?

it happens.

 

[ultimobici]

it happens.

In 30 years I have never seen it. Maybe in a parallel universe?