The biggest pile up I saw was in that fixie crit that went viral but I have seen more crashes in road races but then again I have also seen more road races than crits. But I guess folk doing laps (crits) get to know the pitfalls of a course before they get to that ‘brain fart’ stage 
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From my experience, the issues with road races stem form too many riders in too small a space. Pack is rolling along and everyone is packed in tight because of the double-yellow. Some guy touches wheels or people are trying to echelon or whatever…but once it starts, it is brutal.
Kinda similar to that pile-up in Strade Bianche on Saturday…everyone was getting squeezed to the side of the road, so once the crash started, there was no where to go.
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Crits I have seen have narrowings too with lots of riders squeezing through, at first anyway (Ive not seen enough too say 100% but the tour series does and the Edinburgh Nocturne did) but I suspect that once you’ve been through them a dozen time and your brain switches off you’ve got more chance of getting through on auto pilot. The pack has usually thinned out by that stage which will help. Make a mistake when its brand new to you (as in a road race) and you have a tired brain too many riders in a small place you have a recipe for disaster 
OT when you have David Millar flying down a steep cobbled street in the Grass Market (the hen/stag do area of Edinburgh) and drunk hens trying to scramble over the barriers to get to a pub. Thats a recipe for disaster. Fortunately it never materialised. I enjoyed Marshalling at that crit but that’s maybe the reason it was scrapped after 2 editions 
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Aero gains >> weight in almost all circumstances. If my google-fu is right, your Roval Rapides have a depth of 51 mm and 60 mm front and rear. The Firecrests would be pretty close to that, and I am not sure if that’s really worth it from that angle.
As far as tires are concerned, I’d just run 28 mm tubeless all year round. In fact, I do 
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That would be ideal, if the rapides were tubeless, many have set them up tubeless without dramas, but at the moment it feels like too much of a gamble
“Winter” in CA right now, I’m running 28mm GP5K and tossed some sealant in the tubes. Going to try latex with sealant next. I’ve done some climbing rides in the mountains and a fair number of windy flat rides. A lot of rough roads. So far I’m thinking of selling my shallower Aeolus Pro 3V wide rims 30 and 32mm tires) that I used on my first climbing rides on this 9 months new bike. These Rapide CLX seem that versatile. Less torque steer than the Enve 5.6 they replaced 3 months ago.
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Are the Rapides difficult to set up tubeless? Mine have been set-up-and-forget. At some point I should probably replace the sealant with new one.
That’s a big factor. When I first rode deep wheels 5–6 years ago on a loaner bike (a Trek Domane SL6 disc), the wheels were super sensitive to wind and it kinda freaked me out. My 3Ts have been flawless in that regard, too. I can feel a hint of a tug, but it’d never actually amount to unwanted steering input.
I’m talking about torque steer while descending over 35mph / 56kph. Long fast descents in canyons with crosswinds.
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Specialized say they are tube only, I’ve heard they are some of the easiest wheels to set up tubeless.
When I bought my Tarmac sl7 pro, in lieu of upgrading to the clx I had the wheels rebuilt with sapim cx-ray spokes, then I’d also get the extra durability of the DT Swiss 350 hubs. I was told by my wheel builder at the time that they look like great tubeless wheels, he even finished them off with tubeless rim tape, but I feel a bit sketchy about it at the moment, even though I’ve never heard of any tubeless failures on the rapides either. I also don’t want to void the warranty on the rims.
What wheelset are you running tubeless?
Are there any manufacturers that claim you are voiding your warranty if you are setting up your wheels tubeless?
I have 3T Discus 45|32s. They are very modern: tubeless-ready, 25 mm internal width and have the goldilocks depth of 45 mm. They aren’t the lightest, but I like their feel and their supreme stability in the wind.
I don’t know how difficult they were to set up tubeless with the Pirelli P-Zero that my LBS recommended, I just asked them to set them up tubeless when I bought the bike. But they recommended the tires, so I reckon they knew what they were doing. I have never had a problem with them. They are even holding pressure. (I haven’t ridden my road bike outdoors since perhaps November, I don’t like taking my road bike on potentially icy roads.)
Yeah, if there is a warranty claim or they have their shit happens crash replacement in the first 2 years they’ll replace the wheels, but if they find tubeless sealant residue they can refuse to replace the wheels
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WTF?! That’s ridiculous.
That’s almost as bad as bike manufacturers warning users against putting their bikes on indoor trainers and then selling indoor trainers on their website.
Yeah, I agree 100%, the risk is probably still minimal just like the indoor trainers as well. Just haven’t heard a ton of testimonial from people that have gone tubeless. Spec is about to release a new tubeless tyre and possibly a new tubeless rapide wheelset, so we’ll see where that goes, that might be the solution.
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A few media outlets that had the Rapide CLX for testing, before the public launch, reported that the wheels came ready to setup tubeless. Then during/after testing they were informed by Specialized that the wheels were not compatible with tubeless. The explanation is related to the fact that running tubeless on a hooked rim puts more compressive force on the rim, good explanation here https://cyclingtips.com/2021/08/roval-rapide-clx-review-one-speedy-tube-only-wheelset/ and I’ll extract one of the paragraphs if you don’t care to read the article:
“Long story short, Roval states the wheels can simply be made lighter by not having to reinforce the rims to withstand the increased compression forces of a tubeless setup, a subject I have a dedicated article for (follow that link). And if you’ve ever measured the spoke tension loss of a tubeless tyre versus one with a tube, you’ll know that this isn’t bullshit. Now whether Roval had always intended these wheels to be too light for tubeless use or found that out by accident remains a question we’ll never have answered, and it doesn’t change what the wheels do and don’t do today.”
It is what it is. I run sealant in my tubes, and have already had a nail puncture a tire/tube and create a sealant mess. If I had a warranty issue, that would not void the warranty.
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