Re the lone guy, that's normal, a flag point controlled by the DSM at a central point in his area where the response team will be. I lone marshal on many sessions, but ONLY flags/radio. If anything happens I put flags out and remain on station in case of a second incident and to protect the response team if upstream of them.

Yes there is a separate flag for water (damp patches) and low adhesion (oil). Waved yellows is 'slow down and be prepared to stop' and should normally only be shown if there are personnel or an obstruction on the track. 


The yellow with orange stripes low adhesion flag was correctly being shown by the group of marshals though I would suggest not as prominently as it should have as the stationary flag would have been desperately difficult to see in front of a group of orange tabards. I'm GUESSING they went to waved yellows because the riders were still barrelling through. The DSM would have radioed upstream for flags from the lone guy (and possibly further up) unless the lone guy saw something that he felt necessitated the waved yellow, in which case safety first! It's difficult to judge from isolated shots on the video.

All the marshals have basic training and many such as me are incident management trained (refreshed every three years). However, you can go a couple of years without incident (I had none last year at the F of M thankfully) and to put training into practice after such a period of time in the heat of the moment at a major incident is very difficult to get it right.

They need 500 marshals for the course and it's impossible to have simulated drills etc for that many volunteers, many of whom are already giving up part of their holiday to facilitate the racing!

They are doing their best! t'ain't fun to have riders barrelling past you under waved yellows when you are trying to get a stretcher up the road to the helicopter or clearing debris and there's a lot of that goes on.