Finlay Tarling killed in Volta a Portugal
- Thread starter Gweeds
- Start date
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curious why only the TeamGB riders and ZoeB were on the front there and for the rollout, when there are I think I counted another 22 (not including these 7) Brits in the race ?
ivegotabike
Regular
I was a spectator at the North Yorkshire Grand Prix on 16 Aug. The races had rolling road closures. The standard of marshalling and police escorting was very high. It was clear from talking to a few of the marshalls and police escort riders that they were all acutely aware of what had happened in Portugal and were hyper focussed on keeping the riders safe.
Maybe some would say it was a slight downside that the commissaires were stopping more dropped riders at the end of each lap this year than I recall noticing in previous years. But doing so kept the race bubble small enough that the available resources were able to manage the roads really well for the riders.
Maybe some would say it was a slight downside that the commissaires were stopping more dropped riders at the end of each lap this year than I recall noticing in previous years. But doing so kept the race bubble small enough that the available resources were able to manage the roads really well for the riders.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
I think I remember races in North Yorkshire being neutralised in the past due to lack of police and council support, so it may be more necessary than we think. https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/tour-of-britain-yorkshire-stage-neutralised-88888 or maybe there was another.
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
Well there was a ToB incident just yesterday
“While the race convoy was still in sight and I was less than two minutes down, there were cars from the general public coming at me from all directions, including one that nearly hit me on a roundabout. Later on, the moto escort was wonderful and I felt much safer." Maeve Plouffe - O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes
https://road.cc/news/tour-of-britain-near-miss
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Like @mjr I've been unable to track down an original source for Hansen's comments, it all seems to be second hand. Apparently he also said “The organisation is [generally] very good, but what happened is a bit of a hole in the system”
Now I know Jonathan Vaughters isn't everyone's cup of tea, but his response seems to be worth reading.
“A bit of a hole in the system? A car going straight into riders full speed opposite direction and the problem is the helmets? I can’t even begin to comment on this level of insensitivity. [...] What I’m really not enjoying is this sentiment that’s coming from very powerful people in cycling, that says: ‘What can you do? Sometimes cars just end up on the road, this is just part of doing competitive sport on the open road’. That is not true. This is preventable,”
Quotes as reported in road.cc here https://road.cc/news/ef-boss-jonathan-vaughters-blasts-ucis-focus-on-ridiculous-little-issues
Now I know Jonathan Vaughters isn't everyone's cup of tea, but his response seems to be worth reading.
“A bit of a hole in the system? A car going straight into riders full speed opposite direction and the problem is the helmets? I can’t even begin to comment on this level of insensitivity. [...] What I’m really not enjoying is this sentiment that’s coming from very powerful people in cycling, that says: ‘What can you do? Sometimes cars just end up on the road, this is just part of doing competitive sport on the open road’. That is not true. This is preventable,”
Quotes as reported in road.cc here https://road.cc/news/ef-boss-jonathan-vaughters-blasts-ucis-focus-on-ridiculous-little-issues
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
I'd have more respect for Vaughters if he didn't immediately go on to talk about how many small races there were and how it was so terrible teams were forced to chase UCI points in them. He's clearly banging the drum for his own agenda there (he has always been an opponent of promotion/relegation). Part of the interview seemed to suggest he was happy for those races to exists as long as they weren't UCI sanctioned, which just makes it sound like he doesn't care about rider safety if they aren't pro riders on a UCI registered team. His argument that fighting for UCI points was forcing riders to take risks in these races was ankle deep at most - he's actually complaining that riders are racing. I have no idea what races he thinks PCT or CT teams should be racing if the small races aren't UCI licenced. It's not like ColoQuik, Flanders - Baloise or Kern Pharma spend the year racing a load of WT events
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Have you got a link to the full interview? All I had to go on was the road.cc distillation which didn't go into the details you refer to. Or maybe I missed them in amongst the adverts.
I did say JV wasn't everyone's cup of tea so I was a bit hesitant about quoting him. I do think that quote, in isolation, is a good criticism of Hansen.
No Ta Doctor
Veteran
It's in the BBC interview road.cc linked to, at the bottom (there are several sections, and a few of them look like the page ends there...
"Why do we need 700 race days around the world? It's fine if those events occur, but not as sanctioned events with riders fighting for points. What's wrong with 100 days on the race calendar?"
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/articles/cddjv2jn846o
