Tragedy,Amy Dombroski killed while training

Amy Dombroski killed while training
By: Peter HymasPublished: October 3, 18:23, Updated: October 3, 19:58

Amy Dombroski, a 26-year-old American who races cyclo-cross for the Belgian Young Telenet-Fidea squad, was killed today while on a training ride in Belgium. The news first broke on Twitter via her team followed by a report on vandaag.be that Dombroski was hit by a truck.

"It is terrible, terrible news," Corné Lepoeter, president of Telenet's development team, told VeloNews. "We are all so sad. … We don't know anything more. We just got the news."

The Young Telenet-Fidea squad later reported on their team website more details about the circumstances of Dombroski's death, which occurred while she was in the midst of a motor-pacing workout on the road.

"Amy was doing a workout behind a scooter when around 4:00 pm, a collision occurred with a truck in Sint-Katelijne-Waver," read the statement. "The driver of the motorcycle miraculously escaped the accident but for Amy the consequences of the impact were so great that she succumbed.

"Amy was a very likeable young woman with lots of ambition. She had worked hard in recent months on her speed and power to make it to the top of women's cyclo-cross in the coming months."

It was also stated by the Young Telenet-Fidea team that Dombroski was engaged to motocross rider Ryan Rozinsky.

Dombroski opened her 2013-2014 'cross season in the United States with a pair of local races in Colorado where she placed second at Cross of the North and first at GMS Zero Gravel Cross. She then travelled to Las Vegas, Nevada where finished 15th in her seventh CrossVegas then competed in the Gran Prix of Gloucester in Gloucester, Massachusetts this past weekend where she placed eighth on Saturday and 11th on Sunday.

Dombroski then flew to Belgium for her team's presentation on Tuesday and the start of her European campaign.

Dombroski was a native of Jericho, Vermont, but like many pursuing a professional cycling career she resided in Boulder, Colorado. Dombroski was a three-time U23 national cyclo-cross champion and also had US U23 national titles on the road and for cross country mountain biking in her palmares.

The 2013-2014 'cross season would be her second as part of the Young Telenet-Fidea squad and her third straight year of having a Belgian base for the bulk of her cyclo-cross season. During the 2011-2012 'cross season, Dombroski was a one-woman team in Europe, sponsored by Crankbrothers.

Dombroski was a member of the US national team at the most recent UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships which were held for the first time in the United States in Louisville, Kentucky. Dombroski finished 11th, her best-ever world championship result, and finished the 2012-2013 season in 16th on the overall UCI rankings, the highest-placed American after number one-ranked Katie Compton.

Prior to competing for Young Telenet-Fidea and Crankbrothers, Dombroski rode 'cross for the Luna Pro Team (2010-2011), Schlamm p/b Primus Mootry (2009-2010), Velo Bella-Kona (2007-2009) and Excel Sports Boulder (2006). She also competed on the road and in mountain biking throughout her career with stints as a road pro with Webcor in 2008-2009 as well as the Luna Pro Team for mountain biking coinciding with her time spent racing 'cross for the program.

In addition to her success in 'cross on US soil, Dombroski had numerous top-10 'cross results in European races including World Cups, Superprestige events and Bpost Bank Trofee events.

Everyone at Cyclingnews would like to express their deepest sympathies to Amy’s family, friends and teammates.

http://www.cyclingnews.com

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Another Ghost Bike






THE GORILLA IN THE ROOM
October 03, 2013

Tim Blumenthal, President, PeopleForBikes



In the pre-digital age, I would have been described as a broken record. That’s because every day, at least a half dozen times, I repeat the phrase, “When people ride bikes, great things happen.” I say it in media interviews, sponsor pitches, and in pep talks during staff meetings here at PeopleForBikes headquarters.

This simple sentence neatly summarizes all the health, air quality, road congestion, business, and money-saving benefits of riding bikes. It helps explain why our organization exists. It’s a pure reflection of the smile in our red, white and blue logo.

But the truth is, not all outcomes of bicycling are positive. Far too many bike riders get injured (or worse) worldwide. Just this morning, we received gut-wrenching news from Belgium that professional cyclocross racer Amy Dombroski had been killed in a collision with a truck. Amy was a nationally respected and revered member of the competitive cycling community, and her death hits particularly close to home for us, as we would often see her smiling face while riding our local bike paths.

Professional cyclocross racer Amy Dombroski's recent death is tragic news, as are the fatalities of the 600+ Americans killed every year in bike accidents.

The problem is particularly glaring here in the United States, where bike injury and fatality rates are roughly 20 times those of the cycling-friendly countries of western Europe. In 2011, 672 Americans died in bicycle accidents—most of them in collisions with motor vehicles. Yes, this number is less than one ten-thousandth of one percent of the number of U.S. bike rides this year (more than four billion in sum). But I think we can all agree that not even one bicycling fatality is acceptable.

Despite all of its wonders, bicycling in America has a serious problem: safety. We don’t like to talk about it, and we struggle to improve it.

Our counterparts in the Netherlands and Denmark—arguably the two best bicycling nations in the world—advise us to work on making bicycling safer, but not talk about it publicly.Talking directly and explicitly about safety, they say, is problematic because it reminds people that bicycling can be dangerous and it actually discourages some from riding. And where fewer people ride, motorists don’t expect to encounter people on bikes. The result is more dangerous riding conditions. It’s a vicious circle.



PeopleForBikes’ Approach
At PeopleForBikes, we’ve been working on bike safety since we launched 14 years ago. The process is daunting, solutions are elusive, and progress is very slow.

From our beginning, we’ve focused on improving infrastructure. We’ve invested close to $10 million in grants, lobbying, and support of national organizations and events that help build and improve better bike lanes, paths, trails, and parks. We pay close attention to creating seamless networks that are easy to follow from where you live and work to where you want to go. We have played a central role in increasing the federal investment in bike facilities, which totals $9 billion for 27,000 projects in the last 20 years.

Our outlook on infrastructure is a key reason we’ve prioritized our Green Lane Project for the last two years (and we will continue to do so in 2014 and 2015). It’s an effort to build and promote better bike lanes in cities. It emphasizes lanes that are separated and protected from motor vehicle traffic. While the number of these lanes has doubled nationwide in each of the last two years, there aren’t enough of them—yet.

For National Bike Month 2013, we produced a video called “Standoff.” Our goal was to spin the stereotypical story of anger and confrontation between drivers and riders to get everyone to recognize that we all share responsibilities on the road. We preached (badly needed) mutual respect and civility, and tried to do it with a touch of humor.

We’ve awarded bike safety educational grants that teach kids and adults to be skilled, predictable riders. We’ve supported the development of bike boulevards—lightly traveled city streets where speed limits are low and bike riding is promoted. We backed a rider/driver communication/cooperation effort organized by Stanford University.

During the last seven years, we’ve invested more than $1 million in the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. The improvements to safety that have been engineered by this very capable organization aren’t limited to school hours: they benefit everyone on bike and foot, all day, every day.

No matter what we (and our partners) do, the simple fact is that bike riding remains dangerous in too many places. Many factors seem nearly beyond our control.

Americans drive faster than the speed limit but rarely get ticketed.
Bike riders often fail to follow the rules of the road and sometimes ride unpredictably. This is more than a practical challenge to safe interaction with cars; it breeds mistrust and anger.
American drivers are often distracted. Hands-on cellphone use while driving remains legal in three dozen states. Texting while driving remains okay in 11 states. Again, violations in both categories are rarely enforced.

Some bike riders are holier-than-thou. Others react violently to every minor encounter on the road (as do many drivers. If you can tolerate salty language, take a look at this Louis C.K. video. You may laugh knowingly.)
When a moving 4,000-pound car hits a moving 25-pound bike, the outcome is always ugly. When a 180-pound bike rider slaps the hood of a nearby car in frustration, the outcome is always ugly, too.


The Need for Solutions and Personal Responsibility
Lots of programs and informal efforts focus on cycling safety and cooperation on the road. The Ride of Silence works to build shared respect among motorists and bike riders by honoring the fallen with slow-paced, silent bike rides. White ghost bikes are often posted at locations of fatal bike accidents. Every time I see a ghost bike, it pierces my soul and gets me thinking about making bicycling safer.

The League of American Bicyclists directs an evolving Ride Smart program that trains and certifies riding instructors and provides advice on safe riding.

In the Netherlands, all school children receive bicycling instruction in elementary school, and all receive broader traffic safety instruction in sixth grade. A few U.S. schools and after-school programs now conduct similar programs.

No doubt: more needs to be done. Just about all of us know someone who has been seriously injured or killed in a cycling collision. What more can we do about it?

Beyond the work we do here at PeopleForBikes, I believe it starts with personal responsibility. I go out of my way to ride predictably, stop at lights and stop signs, and let drivers turn right on red ahead of me when I’m going straight. I work with drivers to earn their respect and compassion and I hope the positive feelings carry over to all of their interactions on the road. This may sound corny and idealistic to some. I don’t care.

When people ride bikes, great things happen. This is the overriding truth. At the same time, we’ve got so much more work to do to tame the gorilla in the room: safety.

PeopleForBikes is open to your ideas. Post them here. Thanks.


http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php

http://www.bikeleague.org/content/ride-smart-0

http://www.bikeleague.org/content/ride-smart-0


http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/the-gorilla-in-the-room#keepreading