I was up on Pikes this past weekend when the race was on. We made all kinds of funny jokes like the hay bails being only two high...just high enough to toss the poor kids into the woods way down below. It was more hype up there than sport. the usual rock station, glitzy babes, high stressed announcers, etc. They only had two miles of the road closed for this event and not the entire road.
I think if they did the entire road you see that about 2/3rds of the way down some tiny trails of smoke emerging from those little bearings, a sudden seize, and hard crashes. Just a hunch. ;-)