[san rensho]

The two youtube views show very clearly what happened, and it was unfortunately, completely rider error, and I might add, the most basic, newbie mistakes compounded on to tragic effect. The team car did not contribute at all to the collision, it just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mistake number one the cyclist is coming in way too fast on the inside in a corner. When he realizes his mistake, he compounds the mistake by using the rear brake brake HARD. In this situation, in fact, in almost all situations on a bicycle or a motorcycle, never ever use the rear brake, use only the front brake.

Unfortunately, the poor cyclist compounds his mistake even more. By using the rear brake, the rear wheel locks up and he starts to fishtail. When you're in this situation, the only thing you can do is hold onto the rear brake and keep on skidding. But he makes again, another classic beginner mistake, he lets go of the rear brake and immediately gets traction while the bike is still sideways and high sides, eventually getting airborne and going into the Porsche.

If you look at the group of three immediately before him, the guy in the middle of the three is a textbook example of how to take that corner. He brakes late and stays way to the outside, gets his speed down, and comes across and hits the apex late and starts to accelerate out. It's really uncanny how slow in, late apex fast out in almost any corner on almost any vehicle is the fastest and safest way around the corner.

Yet in almost every big crash that I see on television, the rider invariably is way too far inside and way too fast in a 90 degree+ corner, he locks up the rear wheel and everything goes downhill from there. I really can't understand how professional racers can't learn a very simple concept. Never use the rear brake, always use the front brake.