prayers and good thoughts to whoever the injured rider is (and his family and friends)….

i didn’t know you. this is a tragedy…..my deepest condolences to your family and friends…..

So sad. Condolences to his family and everyone please be safe.

My god, this is so awful. There are no words. Is there anyone who was in the 3/4 field that knows what caused this crash?

I guess I’ve made peace with the idea that I’m risking skin and collar bones when I race, but not with the idea that a simple circuit race could be fatal. Wow. There was a similar death at the weekly crit in Austin a year or two ago, another head injury. Really scary, and of course horribly tragic for the friends and family of the man who passed away. My thoughts are with them. Could anyone from the race give insight into the crash? Was it high-speed or just a freak landing from a ‘regular’ crash? Anything unusual about the way it happened?

Someone in the race told me that he looked over his shoulder and hit a small divet and just went down. Something any of us could, and probably do do.

This makes me nervous about Prospect Park. The road is so rutted and has so many potholes, it seems to be a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t think I’ve seen so many flats as yesterday, but it seems pretty insignificant in comparison…

My thoughts go out to Markus and his family.

I raced Bethel in an earlier race and we had a crash that thankfully everyone walked away from.

The organizers of this race are excellent. The course is swept, well marshaled and, usually, very safe. The organizers go so far as to mandate all Cat 5s to attend a pre-race clinic each and every week.

These are good guys…lets not jump to silly conclusions like “jail the organizers.”

Do you mind refraining from comments like this right now? NYVC, can you consider deleting that post?
Bike racing is a risky sport. We all know that in the back of our heads.. Officials/police/promotor did all the best they could do. It could have been you or your close friend. It is terrible that it happened to someone. Your comment is very inappropriate in times like this.

Wow. I am speechless. Condolences to his family, friends, and teammates. May he RIP!

this is beyond horrible to hear. i wasn’t there so I have no idea what happened, but this is the first time in my 7 years of racing that I have heard of something like this. But it is important to remember that it can all end crossing the street, driving a car, whenever. even simply being inactive can kill you. so, live your life, and if you choose to have a dangerous hobby do everything you can to minimize the risk and make peace with it.

Seconded. I hope there will be a fund to give to for his family to let them know the community cares.

Ditto

I raced the CAT4 series on Saturday, and lined up next to Markus. He was super-nice and very outgoing. He went so far as to warn about where things could get sketchy on the uphill with some riders moving backward (he mentioned a crash there last week).

Real class act, you could tell.

When and if we do something as a community, let’s make sure we get the word out to demonstrate our support.

That’s actually stupid. Severely.

What this shows is that you can do everything right and something tragic can still happen. It highlights how lucky we are that something more catastrophic doesn’t occur in city races on a more regular basis. Over the years there have been death (two?) or non racers as a result of racers. Sending fields off in the dark, without pace cars, on really crappy roads, and with marshals who get stoned before climbing into the back of the box van increases the chances of serious mishaps.

To try and use the tragedy at one venue to excuse the poor management and a decisions is a perversion of common sense.

Coming from someone associated with AvD that shouldn’t be very surprising.

Thank you Rod.

Before anything else – and others have mentioned it but i want to reiterate it – this tradgedy has no reflection on the organizers of the race. In fact, if not shocking enough on its own, the fact that it happened in what I think is the safest and most well run race in the NYC area makes it even worse.

With that out of the way, i’ll offer my perspective. This was 3rd race back into racing post an epic crash on memorial day sunday last year. In the bound brook crit i went down hard at 33.7 mph and landed on my head. I was unconscious and don’t remember hitting the ground nor the 4 days i spent in the hospital. While most of my cycling friends understand the draw and almost need to get back into racing, the non-cyclists don’t understand the joy of racing, nor the community that being part of racing opens up.

In the 3-4 race sunday, i was a few wheels behind Markus and a woman in the race complimented me on my bike handling for being responsive and i guess not over-reacting and ramming the brakes or jerking one way or the other. As we passed Markus, i knew it wasn’t good. Initially he looked much like what i look like in the pictures of my crash. At first that gave me some faith he’d be ok, but as we passed each time it didn’t look the same to me anymore and i truly feared the worst, while hoping for the best.

I know the each of us has our own reasons for racing and ambitions/goals we want to meet – but let us always remember, both while training AND racing that all of this should be fun and safe. Always be present, attentive and focused. If being safe while getting a drink means giving up some position, do it. In a race or group ride/close quarters, we should trust our capabilities and less and focus on having fun and maintaining the greatest safety possible while doing that.

I hope that each of us can be at peace with what happened and continue to contribute to the cycling and racing communities as much or even more so than in the past. While i didn’t know Markus personally, from everything that’s been said about him, that is the type of response he would want.

Let’s show solidarity and donate. I think that an investigation should show where and how that happends in terms if the helmet failed or not, if the helmet was strapped properly or if helmets need extra occipital protection. Accidents on a bike are part of the race, and yes we are lucky enough. Stop blaming or justifying others, this is not the time for that, this is a tragedy that happened very close to us and the life of some won’t be the same. Sad weekend!

after crashing, I rendered assistance. I was close enough to be sickened from all the blood. His helmet was properly strapped on and appeared to be intact and in the right orientation. He was breathing but unconscious.

We did not move him. We waited for the emergency first responders to arrive (and they were very quick).

The field came around once and we directed them away from the area. By the second time around we neutralized them. There was not a third time.

The promoter handled this expertly and deserves gratitude. He was right there with us at the scene.

As someone who has to carry these memories around forever I am not pleased with some of the loose talk that this incident has created. I did not see Markus go down. I got caught up in the aftermath which propagated across the road.

It isn’t all loose talk. It brings the subject up of how out of touch people can get with regard to racing and what matters and with regard to the danger associated with loosing perspective of how this fits in with the larger picture of most of our lives.

Thanks to Rod for setting it up.
I just donated. Chip In is an excellent service. Easy and quick.

RIP Markus. In his memory let’s all ride safer and be more positive towards each other.

Is the Chip-In broken or are you people that cheap?

It actually started at $1,000 and keeps getting bigger.

Right now it says $3,350 of $4k target. There’s a lo-tech refresher for ya.

Keep the vibe positive, folks.

My Chip-in says $120 out of $1000 no matter how many times I refresh. Weird. So it’s broken. You guys aren’t cheap. I take it back. I didn’t think it made sense knowing the generosity of the NYC cycling community.