With high-tension action expected in the Sunday morning’s Race to the Clouds, the Pikes Peak has become one of the hottest road racing points of the planet, especially as this weekend’s MotoGP round at Assen, in the Netherlands will take place on Saturday, the one and only exception in the whole calendar.
Even though the speeds in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb event are no match for those in the premier class, the PPIHC is not exactly a safe race. Taking a look at footage from the Pikes Peak and observing the absence of guard rails will definitely send chills down the spine of many a rider. A Pikes Peak, mistakes can be exceedingly costly, as we’re dealing with so much more than “merely”coming off the bike: a tumble down a steep rocky slope several hundreds of feet deep is definitely not good for one’s health.
Still, some fellows are lucky enough to ride another day, even after suffering crashes up the Pikes Peak 156 turns. The footage was recorded by the camera installed on Jeff Grace’s bike and it caught a spectacular sight: another rider’s bike crashing down from the upper terrace after its rider lost control of it. Both bike and rider fall in the middle of the road, with supermoto rider Tom Specht luckily landing near the side of the asphalt strip.
His Honda CRF450 however, made it straight in the middle of the road, with Grace unable to stop in time or swerve around it and subsequently crashing as well. As insane these two crashes are, both riders made it without life-threatening injuries. Specht was lucky to escape with shoulder injuries. There is a joke about those who run off the road in one of the Pikes Peak turns: a rider would rather die from starvation during the drop, than from the impact, but sometimes it just doesn’t sound funny at all.
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