As part of the racing action in Crystal City this past weekend, the organizers set up a 200 meter sprint competition in a “shootout” format. This involved two riders starting from a dead stop and sprinting for the line, 200 meters away. The winner advanced to the next round. So this is what the two guys below were trying to do.
Andrew Christian, riding for the Naval Academy, missed a shift and went down, while Nickolas Shamrell, riding for West Point, unsuccessfully tried to avoid the same fate. And yet the sprint was still contested by both riders, and one of them won. To see how, check out this gallery showing the sequence of events.
(For more on the Service Academy Shootout, including photos, click here.)
Jeff
I was pretty close to your vantage point and was amazed as the series of events unfolded. Excellent job capturing them. It was quite amazing to watch.
bob
I was probably about 20 feet from you on the same side. I was really surprised from the amateur abilities of these riders. First of all, none of these guys could really sprint, secondly, that they would crash and lastly that the guy behind didn’t avoid the crash… Of course another racer later crashed by himself too. I premature release from the pedal would be a good excuse to crash, however I felt really sorry for them crashing as everyone around me was dumbfounded.
Someone should have really have them practice this a bit more before trying this the first time around.
Thank you for capturing these photos.
Ken
Great shots! Those guys had a chance to give “throwing the bike” a whole new meaning. With a good throw, maybe the Navy guy would have won. :-)