Quite often low speed falls can result in a more serious injury than a high speed one and this video highlights this. On what appears to be quite a narrow start ramp Grasman, a 42 year old from Luttlelgeest seemed to just loose balance for a second and despite his best efforts to recover came off the side of the ramp and landed heavily on his arm. Medics were on the scene straight away to look after the injured rider. Grasman is not an inexperienced time trialist. He was the last Dutch time trial champion to win the elite championships without a contract.
Current UCI rules don’t stipulate any standards for the start ramp, just that one needs to be used. Should there be a standard adopted to reduce the chances of an accident like this happening again in the future?
2.4.011 The rider shall start from a stationary position. He shall be held and then released, without being
pushed, by a holder. The same holder shall perform the task for each rider.
If the start time is recorded using an electronic strip, the distance between the point of contact of the
front tyre with the ground and the electronic strip must be 10 cm.
(N) The start shall be taken from a starting ramp.
(text modified on 1.09.00; 1.01.04).
Warming video contains graphic images
