The smell of burning rubber hit the air in a small, hazy cloud at the back of John Grenier’s racing bike.
All around him, a pack of about 70 riders participating in Sunday’s annual Yarmouth Clam Festival bike race on Route 88 started swerving hard to the right. By the time Grenier saw anything other than the backs of other riders, he was staring at the grille of an oncoming car.
“We came flying down the hill, going at least 40 miles an hour,” said the Auburn man on Monday. “We took up both sides of the road, but all of a sudden there was a car in the middle of the road.”
Cars traveling north along the race route had pulled onto the shoulder, giving cyclists an open lane as two leaders passed safely.
“Normally, they have an eight-minute window to let cars through,” said Grenier. “If cars do see bikers coming, they are instructed to move over to the side, onto the soft shoulder of the road to let them through.”
Two or three cars had already pulled off to one side, blocking the left shoulder as a way out. But 88-year-old driver John Christiansen of Yarmouth, after apparently misunderstanding instructions from the race marshals, then pulled around those cars into the oncoming group of racers. The marshals, who were allowing only local traffic on the road, had informed each driver about how to proceed.
A few riders collided with Christiansen’s sedan, while another 15 or 20 crashed into one another and fell, according to race officials.
The sea kind of parted’
“I thought I was going through (the car),” said Grenier. “All of a sudden, I heard bikes crashing and people screaming. The sea kind of parted in front of me and I was going right at the car at about 40. I locked up my brakes and started to skid sideways. There was no out to the left because of the other car, and everyone else was going to the right.”
Grenier had resigned to himself that he was going to make contact with the car, and he started to brace for impact.
“It’s weird how time slows down in a situation like that,” said Grenier. “At the last possible second – I was probably five feet away or less – my wheel caught and I swerved all the way to the right and I fishtailed pretty badly. At that point, I had slowed down to about 20 and I saw a patch of open pavement, so I let myself go onto that.”
Grenier was far from out of the mess just yet.
“The rest of the field was still coming, so as I got up, I still had to avoid other bikers coming down the hill.”
Grenier was lucky. He rode away, and on Monday, he was at work at Rainbow Bicycles, his business in Auburn.
Injured cyclists on the ground
Others weren’t so fortunate.
“There were at least 20 guys on the ground holding shoulders, ankles, you name it. It was a bad spill.”
Fellow Lewiston-Auburn area riders Tom Gosselin and Brandon Cornett were also involved in the crash, but to a lesser extent.
“I was back in a pack a bit, and I heard the crash start to take guys out,” said Gosselin. “As I was coming up to it, I saw an opening in the sidewalk and I went through it, up and around.”
Gosselin jumped onto the curb, avoided a utility pole by just inches, drove over a lawn, over a hill, down the same property’s driveway and back onto the road and into the race, which continued despite the pileup.
Cyclists in the 36-mile race do 10 laps in Yarmouth on various roads, including Route 88.
Police said Monday they are not seeking criminal charges for now against Christiansen.
Paul Weiss, president of the Portland Velo Club and a longtime organizer of this race, said the stretch of Route 88 where the accident occurred should be closed to traffic for future races. Ideally, he’d like all roads in the 3.6-mile loop to be shut down for race morning, but he agrees that such a request is unrealistic.
“It’s hard because it’s (Route 88) and all that traffic,” Weiss said. “Where do you send them?”
As a result of the accident, there will be a meeting this week for race organizers, and probably representatives of the U.S. Cycling Federation, the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce and the Yarmouth Police Department. The race is sanctioned by the Cycling Federation, which certifies that the course is safe and provides secondary insurance for riders.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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