Racer safety has always been a primary concern for BFC race organizers. As all BFC veterans know, we take safety very seriously. We also appreciate that BFC racers look after one another and report incidents to the radio network. We need you to keep doing that but moving forward please be more specific with what you report to the radio operators.
Frequent use of the phrase ‘Rider Down’ has become a concern for our safety team. When a racer says ‘rider down’ as they pass a radio operator it necessarily initiates an EMS response. In some cases this can result in the nearest EMS vehicle having to go against race traffic and we never want to send vehicles against race traffic unless absolutely necessary.
Too often in recent years EMS has gone against race traffic only to find racers that were not in need of immediate medical attention and even racers that just left their bike momentarily because ‘nature called’. In 2023 we had an ambulance go six miles against race traffic due to reports of a ‘rider down’ that was never found.
The use of ‘rider down’ for every incident actually creates safety issues. A safe race is everyone’s goal but we know accidents happen. That’s why we take safety so seriously. Please help us by not creating safety hazards.
Be more specific when reporting incidents to radio ops and use the phrase ‘rider down’ only when immediate medical attention is necessary due to serious injury.
