Video: Andreas Kolb Narrowly Avoids Hitting a Car on the Les Gets World Cup Course
Andres Kolb has shared footage of himself nearly hitting a car on the Les Gets World Cup course.
Kolb was on a timed training run in the lower section of the track when a marshal allowed a car to cross the track (Update: or the driver ignored the marshal’s instructions - thanks to the French speakers in the comments). Kolb was picking up speed on the open section heading into the new motorway but was thankfully able to haul on the Trickstuff anchors on his Continental Atherton team bike and stop in time.
Andi was understandably annoyed at the near miss and gave the marshal a few choice words before continuing the rest of his run. MTBnews.de posted the moment as part of their course preview and it’s safe to say Kolb was flying up until then. Keep an eye on him to do well in qualies and racing this week, hopefully with fewer near misses!
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www.whatcar.com/alfa-romeo/giulietta/hatchback/used-review/n913/advice
Of course some chauvinism against a country or a car could make one worse but in all fairness we had some pretty rough times in terms of reliability and manufacturing quality during decades.
www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a23145269/alfa-romeo-giulia-quadrifoglio-reliability-update
"we can't in good conscience recommend that anyone buy one."
The Alfasuds were amazing cars to drive but yeah, the rust was shocking even for the era. Still, they were miles ahead of any other small fwd car to drive. VW had to introduce the GTI to get the better of them.
For someone who is a car guy, thats a pretty clueless comment
I owned a 159ti for 4 years. No issues because I kept on top of the tlc and service intervals.
The only people I know that have issues with Alfas is because they treat them like shit.
I'm sure "real" car guys hate the fact that the oil filter is accessible from the top of the engine. But I guess you wouldn't know that if you've never changed oil on one.
So there's me in my high vis, stopping traffic before a blind turn at a junction. I've got six cars queued up, they look a bit annoyed, but they're behaving. I've walked the line explaining why they're being held and there are signs everywhere. This is the third lap, so I've done this a couple of times already.
On the race radio I hear that the peloton is together and approaching my junction. At that moment, one of the cars in the queue decides 2 minutes is already far too long to wait. He pulls out, passes everyone, I step out to stop him, he aint stopping and goes round me. My blood runs cold as I see him driving towards the blind junction the peloton is approaching.
I get on the radio, but there's already a lot of talk going about the peloton, and in reality although it feels like an eternity the car takes probably 10 second to get from me to the junction. At which point 50 roadies round the corner and six or so of them go over the bonnet or into his bumper. Some of the riders who miss ride past me and call me all the names under the sun.
Just writing this actually makes me tear up. I probably could have stopped that car if I'd been quicker or just thrown myself across the road. Truthfully, once I had them stopped I thought they'd stay stopped.
Two morals to this long winded story:
1) It's not easy being a marshal, lots of boredom, followed by needing to be really fast in response. Be nice to marshals.
2) There's always one a******e driver. You need solid barriers to stop them.
Mind you, my Mum did drive into the roadworks once, she had me and my brother screaming in the back and then just got utterly confused by all the cones! The policeman who then pulled us over was not overly amused...
I for myself had a huge scare at a Trike race when I was in a car and they LET us go by while there were still people riding down the road. They were going slow and we spotted them from afar so we stopped on the side of the road and let them ride by, thankfully. That was not fun.
The driver did in fact stop where the Marshal was standing since that was the only logical thing to do there, but because the marshal couldnt be bothered to move or even put up an arm the car stopped right in the middle of the track. I think the rider was right to be pissed at the marshal for doing such a half ass job.
You seriously have no idea how completely, painfully, utterly, desperately stupid people can be when they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.
- Putting cones out? Make sure there isn't enough space for someone to sneak between them because they will assume that space was meant for them.
- Blocking a turning lane so people can't make a turn into the scene of a collision? Better put someone there because people will just blindly turn using the non-turning lane, even if the road they're turning onto is obviously blocked by fire, ambulance, and police vehicles.
- Trying to block the road with a couple of emergency vehicles? Better bet people will squeeze between them to drive right through whatever you're trying to protect.
- Redirecting traffic on grid roads where the detour is the simplest thing possible? People will not understand how to go around.
It's scary.
Some people are just plan old pieces of shit. More people that we would otherwise hope.
In Morzine i saw many British drunk drivers on the wrong side of the road too. So basically it is like passing ppl on the left lane.
For the training / race they should have more staff and at least two people with stop sign.
I know Les Gets is a small city etc. North America has even worse drivers, every day in Vancouver car drivers are using the bike lane and sidewalks. The same situation happened to me when a Honda Civic decided to be a bike, glad i was on my DH in downtown.
Au passage t'as raison l' Alfa c'est un Monchu, mais en Savoie c'est pas la France on est pas en PLS quand y a un virage et quand il y a de la neige.
Having spent a good deal of time in Paris, I can assure traffic is.... Interesting
Then, when you are fully warmed up, Ischia in mid-August, and earn your master's degree in road madness.
But if you want to go all the way in, those are all boring compared to Africa, such as Nouakchott
The guy was apparently drunk too and since the incident, they put 2 barriers. The gendarmerie was 5 meters away too.
Having said that, the Euro driving I experienced seemed more like driving "on the edge" rather than straight-up bad driving, like seeing how close to the limits of ability they could get before killing everyone, which may actually be a sign of skill rather than inability.
In the grand scheme of things Canadian drivers as a whole really aren't that bad (outside of the major urban centres).
That is why I have a dashcam, last week I saw a mattress on the Sea to Sky highway, so glad I was not speeding.
On the other hand, driving in Paris or Rome (won't apply to Africa, as nobody there cares about bumping into eachother) keeps you on your toes at all times and you're always ready for surprises
Road gap is the clear answer.
Barricades are also important. Lines of tall traffic cones at the least. Sawhorses are better, and can still easily be picked up and moved easily and quickly. And if the crowd is big enough, thanks to lone wolf terrorists deciding that driving rental trucks through crowds was the thing to do, some events will even have city operated garbage trucks parked across the roadway (driver stays with the vehicle, and moves in and out of the way as needed).
By comparison, the measures on display in this video seem a bit weak and half-hearted. Someone is going to get hurt, and nearly did.
A friend of mine slammed at Mach chicken into an oncoming car, and flew away like Superman in the woods.
Luckily he was unscathed, the bike was cracked in half, the impact bent the tie-rods so badly that a tow truck was needed to remove the car.
This is no joke, Kolb was lucky in that he was coming from a long, open section, so the crossing was in plain sight.
Could have ended really badly. Just close the road - why bother with the risk.
But they are definitely the best.
If something is faster the whole field will run it. I/e 29” front wheels.
And yes I am saying that everyone is at a disadvantage. It is very slight so I wouldn't expect it to drastically alter results, but it is there.
Pros are paid to win races on the sponsors components. Within those components they will go to great lengths to get marginal gains, but they have to stay within the brand usually. Some exceptions are made for tires or more commonly for component styles that the brand doesn't make.
Numerous examples can be found of pros riding things that aren't perfect for them because that is what they are paid to run. Look at all the Sram xc pros running axs droppers when there are several droppers on the market that function just as well and weigh significantly less. Shimano doesn't make high end 220 rotors yet. My guess is they will be released with the new Saint and I bet we see multiple riders switch as soon as they can. Even though there are plenty of 220s on the market currently.
But I don’t believe a top rider would knowingly put themselves at a disadvantage. They train too hard not be true competitor. If there’s something they’re unhappy with they develop prototypes with engineers until they’re happy that the component works best for them.
If a rider such as Loris or Loic lost by .23 seconds and believed such an important component like the brakes we’re holding them back, they wouldn’t be running them.
You see him rolling from 3:25 already, he's not hesitating at all, even ignoring the bump.
I've sen similar before when marshalling a junior road race on a closed circuit, also in France. Some nobber drove right onto the course and then stopped just after a blind bend to get shirty with the marshall who was yelling at him to move. I was a bit further on and fortunately had a whistle. I blew it hard enough to make the driver think I was police, gestured him to move then made him pull over and stop about 20 seconds before a solid pack of 30 junior boys came blasting round the corner.
Just listened to the audio - the marshall blames the driver, not Andreas - "il est con celui là"
However, I don't do what you tell me to do. I will continue my quest to rid the mountain bike world of stupid fads like Mullets. Whether you like it or not.
In my opinion they just failed to secure properly this section. There is only a yellow lane on the road that does'not mean anything. A wide STOP sign should be setup before the crossroad..
Andreas: "You need to stop him"
Marshall to the driver: "Are you stupid"
Marshall: "I told him"
Marshall to the driver of the car: "You need to back up"
Marshall: He's f*cking dumb! (talking about the driver)
Andreas: You need to look!
Marshall: This is what I told him!! (talking about the driver to stop)
Andreas: You need to stop him!
Marshall: big silence....
Andreas - HEYYY.
Marchall - C'est pas vrai // Imbelievable.
A - WTF.
M - Il est con celui là // This is a real idiot.
A - You need to look.
M - Je lui ai dit // I told him.
A - You need to stop him.
That's f*cking dangerous.
M - Vous allez reculer // You're going to backup
Nevertheless, an unpleasant situation to say the least
(I grew up in France so know what they are saying)
Translate that!
How ridiculous is that marshal (with the flag = flaggy) for blaming the rider (giving him a serve) for not stopping for the car at the track crossing.
When engaging verbose communication amoungst the colloquial, administrations of the distinct eloquence of linguistical dialects would validate the only vocal requirements as;
"Howzthisc*nt"
Didn’t you know that “not following rules” is the true French national sport
I don’t know Lloyd, the French are A
a*sholes.