Safe racing on open roads

Safe racing

How you and all other riders behave when racing to ensure a safe event is a personal responsibility – personal to you and all other riders.

Racing rules set by the club and AusCycling (see [HERE] for more) are there for your safety and the safety of all other riders. Rules cannot, however, cover everything and are no substitute for a safe and respectful approach to how you race.

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Commissaires

Our commissaires are there to keep you safe, manage risks, and deal with problems and incidents.

Our comms check the course to identify problems that might pose a risk to you. They brief you at race start on things you need to be aware of. They are active on the course keeping an eye on traffic that might impact on riders and warn you of approaching vehicles. If there is an accident, they manage the situation to keep injured riders safe and to get needed help.

Commissaires are not there to be race police. Sure, if they see a rider breach a racing rule they will take down a number if they can but remember, commissaires:

• Volunteer their time and deserve our respect. No one wants to get out of bed in the morning and give up their time to drive around a course doing the distasteful job of imposing penalties on riders for bad behaviour.
• Must drive safely and not be distracted. They cannot sit in the car writing notes or listing rider numbers without risking their own safety and the safety of others on the road, including you.
• Cannot just ‘pass the bunch and pull them all over if they are behaving badly’. Safe passing distance road rules need to be met (more on this below) and commissaires cannot put themselves in danger of colliding with oncoming traffic.

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How you race on open roads is not just a safety issue for riders.

Our events require sanctioning from AusCycling and we need to meet the obligations and expectations AC has in terms of safety, racing rules and road rules. We are one of the few AusCycling clubs that run regular road races, especially over the types of courses we use, so we are very protective of our ability to continue to do this.

All of our races also require SAPOL approval and permits plus local government approval. Years of work have gone into developing these relationships and a reputation as a club that does the right thing. This can all be trashed very quickly if SAPOL or local governments have reason to believe rider behaviour on the road does not live up to their requirements.

We have also had instances of complaints raised to the club by the general public about rider behaviour and have had instances of the local police observing our races. Mix this all together and, without diligent attention to how we all behave on the road, we risk not being able to run races at all.

Check the club’s racing rules [HERE]

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Positioning on the road

When racing, normal road rules for cyclists are not relaxed.

A key element of safe road racing is how you position yourself on the road.

You must ride to the left of the road, well clear of the centre of the road (regardless of whether the road has line markings). There are many reasons why riding up against the centre of the road is not acceptable:

• The road rules require riders to ride as far to the left as is safe to do so – if this is not done, riders will be in violation of this road rule.
• Cars coming up from behind who want to pass the bunch, including a race official who wants to pass the bunch (Commissaire, first aid), are required by law to give a safe passing distance of 1m or 1.5m (depending on the road speed limit). Riding up against the centre of the road does not allow this to be done. A car coming from behind is forced to break the law to get past. This also applies to race officials who might need to pass the group or to even get alongside the group to instruct them to move left, or to pass and pull the whole group over: they cannot do so without themselves breaking a law put in place to protect riders.
• If riding too close to a centre dividing line that is a solid line (single or double), then there is no room for any safe drift to the right (say, a wind gust from the left, slip in concentration), which would break the road rules if it occurred and put riders at risk of collision with oncoming traffic.
• The ‘no margin for error’ to the right would also break AusCycling racing rules if the line is crossed (regardless of whether it is solid or broken) or even if crossing the centre of the road.
• Riding too close to the centre of the road is dangerous in terms of oncoming traffic. It gives traffic passing riders in the opposite direction no room to move. It is exacerbated if the passing vehicle is a heavy vehicle (truck, bus etc). The point of drift to the right (gust of wind from the left, slip in concentration) could also well see a rider cross the centre of the road which increases the risks of collision.