Marathon Crash Race 2012 Results Thanks and Recap

March 23, 2012 in Crash Race Sponsors, Marathon Crash Race, Race Results

THANK YOU

To the Volunteers and Sponsors First of all we want to thank everyone who made this year's Marathon Crash Race happen. With more than 2000 people signing up and hundreds more who showed up just to ride 26 miles of car free streets it was a project that required a large team of dedicated people. We were truly amazed by the efforts of our volunteer team and our sponsors working from registration all the way through to the finish. This was a true collaboration of the people and dedicated small businesses working together to make something great happen. Please see the full credit list below. We love you all. LAPD and the City of Los Angeles We give a big huge special thanks and salute to the LAPD especially Police Officer Gordon Helper for assisting in keeping the riders safe. It was truly a sight to behold. Additionally, Officer Helper championed the cause internally and paved the way for communication between us, LAPD, the Marathon Organizers, the SMPD and the Bureau of Street Services. We would also like to thank Captain Zak, Officer Cirrito, LT Belthius, Commander Scott and Captain Arcos for keeping an open dialog going. The simple fact is, the people of Los Angeles love to ride bicycles and the more that city leaders and agencies do to facillitate cycling, the better our health, environment and communities will become. and now without further adieu...  

THE WINNERS

Every year, we make every attempt to provide the most accurate and just results we can. Our biggest challenge is usually in the women's category as there are relatively fewer females racing and typically they arrive one by one among the larger clusters of racers. Sometimes they get lost in the crowd and we depend on video replay from volunteer videographers to capture the finish. As the support from the community grows, we will continue to refine the process. Ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Our review of the footage combined with stills and multiple angles finds the following:   Women's Fixed Gear: 1st Kapri Gonzales (Arizona) 2nd Kelli Samuelson 3rd Becca Cohen Women's Geared 1st Jo Celso (1st Womens Overall) (San Diego) 2nd Sam Bell 3rd Lindsay Nelson 4th Jen Whalen Men's Fixed Gear 1st Edgar "Willo" Juarez (Long Beach) 2nd Scott Piercefield 3rd James Zaldua 4th Henry Grijalva 5th PNUT Men's Geared 1st Robbie Miranda (1st overall) (Chula Vista) 2nd Evan Stade 3rd Tim Mcgee 4th Fabian Vazquez 5th Dave Lettieri Dead F*ckin' Last Tina Pham   More than 2000 people cross Vine and Hollywood on their way to Santa Monica Mikey Wally captures the finish and 2 minutes of the field: Another angle of the finish showing Women's Fixed 1st place and Womens Geared 1-3 Shots from the finish line: Photoset by Adrian Galacia

All Rights Reserved 2012

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All Rights Reserved 2012

WOMENS FINISH

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Tina Pham of Irvine shows off her DFL prize courtesy of Flying Pigeon Bike Shop! You worked hard for it!!     winner of the PureFix raffle:      THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU The LAPD Police Officer Gordon Helper Captain Zak Officer Cirrito LT Belthius Commander Scott Captain Arcos Our Sponsors:

Orange20.com SwankOne.com Trafikla.com Cinelli-USA.com TLevelBags.com Boombotix.com VelocityUSA.com AllCityCycles.com FlyingPigeon-LA.com EmortalClothing.com ThreadRiot.com KniceClothing PureFixCycles.com StateBicycle.com goIncase.com MikeyWally.com

  The Volunteers

Hern Montenegro Lauren Robison Tawny Barin Norma Herrera Kay Mei Zhao Mikey Wally Swank One Cache Jeff Thrasher Austin Horse Daniel Blas Bobby Gadda Woody Pedal Mobbers Osnap Clark Malik Jesus Lizama Beth Willow Micah Goulet Chris Green Brandon Galindo Dean Gerson Dee Dee K Patrick Miller Chris Lopez Jon Weissman Felipe Castillo Hansel Echevaria Adrian Galicia (Aidstiches) Paul@SwankOne TJ@Orange20 Josef@Flying Pigeon Paul@City Grounds Rick@Trafik Rod@Emortal Malik@Emortal Mehdi@StateBicycle Austin@PureFix.com Lief@boombotix.com

(please don't hesitate to contact if you were forgotten it was a whirl wind I'm sure I forgot someone) THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INCLUDING YOU.   THE FALSE START explained by Roadblock
This year we had a false start and a lot of people were upset and confused by the decision to re-start at Tang's. What happens usually, is that we have what is called a Rolling Start. The Rolling Start is a moderate paced ride to the course entry that works to allow people to get comfortable rolling in the mass, allowing the stronger riders and competitors to filter up front over the uphills of Sunset Blvd. To prepare for this, I usually drive up to Elysian and drop my car off (for a quick escape afterwards to Santa Monica) then I ride back to Tang's to address the field, give a brief on safety and procedure and start the mass rolling at 4am. This year the plan was actually to delay the start to 4:15 or 4:30 because the LAPD advised that cars could still be on the street even at 4am. The mass began rolling at 3:45am. This way too early as many were caught still preparing and parking and the course was not yet secured. The video replay shows exactly what happened.... The mass filled in a gap up to the cop car and then began surrounding it and moving forward. To the cop this may have looked like the start happened or perhaps he was trying to get ahead of the mass as he intended to escort. A feedback loop happened and people continued rolling. I take full responsibility for this. I foolishly did not foresee this situation happening and I had not placed anyone in charge of preventing such a surge from occurring.It was quite a feeling to spend a couple months meticulously planning for an event and then see it all collapse right before your eyes. I was riding back from Elysian and saw the ride coming up the first hill. At first i thought it was Hern's route marshall group but then it became obvious it was the start. I was pissed, bummed angry emotional.... I tried to be zen about it, took a deep breath, but after calling Hern and hearing how upset he was as well i decided to shut it down. It just wouldnt feel right to hand out dog tags on a false start. I couldnt visualize it happening. People come from out of state, out of the country for this and last year i got a lashing for even starting 4 minutes early. At the end of the day, it was my fault for assuming that people would wait for me to start rolling. People were cold, amped, ready to move. Next year, if there is a next year, i will have a team in place holding people from going. Perhaps a rope or a flag. Something. If the race happens again, this won't happen again. Thanks for understanding.