Anybody go race at PIR last night? Can you give any details on this?

http://www.katu.com/stories/78380.html

HOLY CRAP! I haven't been in several weeks, this is very sad... wonder who it was? I've heard of some bad crashes out there, but this is horrible...

Wonder if they'll look into adding some pads to the exposed columns, this is a freak accident, unbelievable.

Condolences to his family and friends.

I normally do alot of racing there but haven't yet this season. Was planning to go next Monday night. Not so sure now, might have to think about it for awhile.

There's a post on the Velonews forum by a guy who was in the race. Witnesses say he might have put his head down briefly in the sprint, and that's all it took..

There was a good article in the Oregonian a couple weeks ago about racing out at PIR trying to encourage more people to give racing a shot. With the tour in progress and the weather starting to clear up, its pretty easy to get fixated on visions of Lance and forget that there are inherant risks associated with racing a bicycle.

I'm pretty sure he was racing with the 1/2/3's, so I'm sure he had plenty of experience out there. I have heard from several people that race out there regularly that there are some pretty nasty wrecks. I'm new to racing, so I can't really comment. What are your thoughts?

I will say this though. My hat goes off to him. He crossed the finish line going all out. Thats a hell of alot more than I can say for alot people.

There was a good article in the Oregonian a couple weeks ago about racing out at PIR trying to encourage more people to give racing a shot. With the tour in progress and the weather starting to clear up, its pretty easy to get fixated on visions of Lance and forget that there are inherant risks associated with racing a bicycle.

I'm pretty sure he was racing with the 1/2/3's, so I'm sure he had plenty of experience out there. I have heard from several people that race out there regularly that there are some pretty nasty wrecks. I'm new to racing, so I can't really comment. What are your thoughts?

I will say this though. My hat goes off to him. He crossed the finish line going all out. Thats a hell of alot more than I can say for alot people.


but there are not that many accidents out there. I"ve seen two all season. just minor road rash. mostly in the cat 4/5 race, one in the Cat 3's. I"m out there each week and left about 20 minutes before this happend.
it is freakish and I'm sure there will be some changes now. The place is so safe to ride (when compared to your average RR or tight crit), it is difficult to imagine. Been making me think hard all day about the choices I make on a bike. The sprints there do reach near 40mph with such a long straight course at the line and the fields can be crowded, but this is something else. This is simply tragic. Hopefully this man's family can take solice is knowing he did pass doing something he loved, which is more than most.

Got this report from a teammate who races in the Northwest.
A 29 year old Beaverton Bicycle Club racer hit a huge, steel cylinder head-on at about 30 mph. How it happened is beyond me. PIR is an auto-racing track; it has a wide path just like Leguna Seca. The last turn before the straight-away is a sweeping 180 left. It is a place where I can usually gap people because I ride it hard all the way through. Somehow, he did not ride all the way through the turn and instead rode straight, straight off the track, and hit a huge, thick metal pole cylinder that is used to anchor extra re-enforcement measures when autos use the track. He died on impact.

When they released his name, I thought to myself that it sounded familiar but I didn't think much of it. I thought it was tragic but I tried to find the positive.

I was talking with my mother on the phone tonight and she was telling me all about this crash up in Portland at a bike race. I played along since she was just being a mother and trying to warn me about how dangerous racing is. Then she told me that the parents of the person who passed are members of our church in Grants Pass. Thats when it hit me. I went to high school with Charlie.

He was a senior when I was a sophomore, and we had obviously lost any sort of contact after high school. I won't pretend to be his best friend, but I will say this. My memories of Charlie Christensen are all positive. He was a quite, good natured person. He wasn't the sort of guy to haze an underclassman, on the contrary, he would have been more likely to put a stop to it. He didn't mess with drugs, or run with the wrong crowd. He was the kind of guy you wanted your son to hang out with, or your daughter to date.

Talking more with my mother, I found out that Charlie was survived by a wife and 10 month old daughter. This family will truly be in my thoughts and in my prayers.