Rider Safety - time to act?

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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
Incidentally, an early instance of crossing-jumping was in the 1914 Giro d'Italia. On the the 430km Lucca-Rome stage, Lauro Bordin snuck across a railway line while everyone else was waiting and managed to build up a 25min lead. He was riding on his own for 350km but was reeled in with 65km to go. More here.
 

The Couch

Über Member
Location
Crazytown
Another thing that has been causing some near-misses in past races are those inflattable (advertisement) arches that span the road for the riders to pass underneath. Both in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and the Scheldeprijs an arch got deflated till the point that the riders could only barely manage to get underneath it.
(I believe in one of last year's Tour of Suisse stages, there was a stage where riders couldn't even ride under it)

So the organization of the Brabantse Pijl has decided to allow only 1 along the track, namely the one highlighting the last kilometer.
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
No, Marathon, Triathlons etc
You are quite correct. Marathons, low speeds, not much to worry about. I've been at a few triathlons over the years, and if some of the courses used for bike sections had been risk assessed, the job was not too good. Traffic, narrow two way sections, pedestrian areas (I kid you not). As I noted, in a stage race teams do not chhecvk out every stage, it's logistically impossible. We all get caught out at times (from experience), and have to trust that the organisers know their business. In the case of the Basque Tour they failed. At Paris-Roubaix, it was so high profile (now even SNCF are threatening to sue?), clear TV, that it might (should) lead to a revision of the rules about level crossings to make it properly safe. As ever, though, human nature comes into it, and in that none are perfect.
 

The Couch

Über Member
Location
Crazytown
By the way, not sure if this has any traction outside of Belgium/Flanders, but in the U21 race of the Tour of Flanders took part on Saturday and the (same) railway incident took place there as well... 3 seconds :eek::excl: was the difference between the last rider and the train (no need to understand dutch, you can just watch the video)
 
U

User169

Guest
. I've been at a few triathlons over the years, and if some of the courses used for bike sections had been risk assessed, the job was not too good.

Guy I know was competing in a triathlon a few weeks ago and two competitors got shot (with firearms) on the bike leg. How's about that for safety!
 
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Location
Midlands
By the way, not sure if this has any traction outside of Belgium/Flanders, but in the U21 race of the Tour of Flanders took part on Saturday and the (same) railway incident took place there as well... 3 seconds :eek::excl: was the difference between the last rider and the train (no need to understand dutch, you can just watch the video)

I find it unbelievable - that

  1. it happened in the U21 race and that the lesson was not learned
  2. That it happened at all - as in the case of the metal posts in Basque race - While I can see oldroadmans point that the teams maybe do not have time to do a "safety run" you would think the organisers would have done a safety audit on the course both in the planning - identify hazard - mitigate risk - and a final check of the course immediately prior to the running - list of hazards - tick box - having been beside the roadside on a couple of occasions there are zillions of people running around either in pickup trucks, cars or on motorbikes - a couple of reasonably competant geezers could easily be assigned to carry out this task without damaging the budget too much
 
Location
Alberta
By the way, not sure if this has any traction outside of Belgium/Flanders, but in the U21 race of the Tour of Flanders took part on Saturday and the (same) railway incident took place there as well... 3 seconds :eek::excl: was the difference between the last rider and the train (no need to understand dutch, you can just watch the video)
There is a link to video of the U23 Vlaanderen race on Cyclingnews with numerous riders ignoring the gates and bells, the last man, Christopher Latham of GBR scraped through by a few metres if that. Riders can whine about safety but it cuts both ways, these guys are very irresponsible. On an actual workplace site they would be run off the job for it.
 

HF2300

Insanity Prawn Boy
There is a link to video of the U23 Vlaanderen race on Cyclingnews with numerous riders ignoring the gates and bells, the last man, Christopher Latham of GBR scraped through by a few metres if that. Riders can whine about safety but it cuts both ways, these guys are very irresponsible. On an actual workplace site they would be run off the job for it.

This is the same incident @The Couch linked to on the Dutch site. It's quite scary.

In the Cyclingnews item Paolini is quoted as "insisting that rider safety should always be a priority and that trains should be stopped for such an important race", which strikes me as (a) not having a clue, and (b) having a somewhat overinflated idea of his own self-importance.

As an aside, Cyclingnews claim to have "translated and collated Paolini’s 14 tweets for clarity" where what they actually seem to mean is "stitched them together and fed them through Google Translate in order to mangle them completely". I particularly like "... it obfuscates the lucidity of the circus that is cycling".
 
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Flying_Monkey

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
With Anotine Demoitié's death, it seems timely to revive this thread to discuss what can be done to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Suggested reforms include speed limits on motos and cars around the peloton, reductions in the numbers of motos, with some favouring only official race camera motos and no outisde news agencies or TV stations, and specialist training and certification for drivers.
 
With Anotine Demoitié's death, it seems timely to revive this thread to discuss what can be done to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Suggested reforms include speed limits on motos and cars around the peloton, reductions in the numbers of motos, with some favouring only official race camera motos and no outisde news agencies or TV stations, and specialist training and certification for drivers.
Also talk of a core of official vehicles which I imagine would be quite difficult to set up with various race bodies and distances between races but surely not insurmountable.
 
Location
Midlands
Also talk of a core of official vehicles which I imagine would be quite difficult to set up with various race bodies and distances between races but surely not insurmountable.

does the actual TV coverage not work like that anyway? ie specialised TV unit - bit like the rolling circus that televises the European golf tour
 
does the actual TV coverage not work like that anyway? ie specialised TV unit - bit like the rolling circus that televises the European golf tour
I imagined so, at least some overlap, however there might not be and the press photographers might be completely different. From Marmions link in the other thread

“I think it’s clear [moto drivers] need more training, and more consistency,” he said. “Can we afford to have the same people at every race? Rather than a revolving door of different drivers every week, have a professional corps of drivers who travel to each race, so an understanding and a sense of predictability can develop between the peloton and drivers.”

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/comm...y-a-tragedy-that-has-been-a-long-time-coming/
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
In the UK, anyone around a race on a moto has to get cleared by BC. Which, according to a local NEG (National Escort Group) co-ordinator, means they must have an advanced moto driving qualification (e.g. IAM), have passed an online module at BC, have completed a number of races as a trainee, before being "passed fit to operate". Only then do they get a licence endorsement on their BC card. The only exception seems to be TV motos, these guys are at all the UK races and from what I have seen are well trained and work to a high standard. Even moto-commissaires, radio tour motos, all need a licence from BC, and have to go through NEG qualification. All of which contributes to safety. The same guy mentioned that they train to keep passing speeds (when moving past riders) at a small differential, unlike some of the police escort motos in the major races! What he did say was that at some point you end up pushing through a peloton to get forward, and it can take anything upwards of 5-10 minutes, when effectively the moto is part of the peloton, and riders give zero space, or maybe half a metre at most. This allows no error room and the NEG guys say it's a worrying thing, riders themselves can't see the possible consequences of either a fall, or what happens if the motos don't get through so hazards ahead are left unmarked. Everyone has a responsibility. He also told me that the first day of a stage race is the worst, as trust has to be established - except on the first day of the women's tour last year, when apparently the riders just filled the road and would let no-one through, after which some teams moaned that hazards were not marked! As he said, you can't have it both ways. I asked about some comments about a minimum passing distance (a metre or two), at which point he smiled and said "that's up to riders, not motos, if they won't give us the space we would not be able to do the job". As he said, everyone has to play their part, finger pointing and blaming is easy. Sensible solutions need cool heads and co-operation of all concerned.
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
I'll caveat the above, it applies to BC and UCI races in UK races. What TLI and LVRC do to qualify people I don't know. They can't use BC/NEG so it may be they have their own scheme - anyone have a clue?
 
A (long but interesting) post from Marcel Kittel on FB:
A comment on safety in professional cycling

With the death of Antoine Demoitie we reached a new and very sad lowpoint in the history of cycling and safety. Many... people say it´s part of our job to take risk and that crashes are part of this sport. And I agree. But not completely. Every rider that gets injured, because of a crash that he is not responsible for, is one too much. There is a difference between riders crashing in the last hectic kilometres of a race, fighting for the right wheel before the sprint and riders crashing because of unsafe road furniture, reckless driving of motorbikes or cars, extreme weather conditions and unsafe race routes.

When the peloton goes into a final or passes a crucial, race deciding point of a race, then every rider knows that it is potentially dangerous. We brake late before the last important corner, we fight for wheels, don´t hesitate to go into a gap that might be too small, we even push each other away to hold or get a better position in the bunch – all that at highspeed and not only our own physical and mental limit, but also at the limit of our tires and brakes. That risk is calculated and, I don´t want to lie here, also one of the reasons why I love cycling. There is this action going on and it´s a real fight for the win! It makes you proud when you win a race, come back to the bus and you talk with your team mates about how good it worked, how well you defended or conquered the position in the final that brought you the win in the end. And you start to talk about those dangerous moments where you almost crashed but somehow you avoided the pile up in front of you or you got you bike straight again after you almost lost it in a corner. The moments of adrenaline, the rush of speed and the victory as reward afterwards are one of the components that make our sport so interesting.

But in the last years it became more and more obvious that cycling has an increasing problem with safety. Here a little reminder from the last 2 seasons: Greg van Avermaet (San Sebastian), Peter Sagan (Tour of Spain), Taylor Phinney (US Nationals), Stig Broeckx (Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne), Jesse Sergent (Tour of Flanders) and Jakob Fuglsang (Tour de France) have been all involved in crash with a motorbike or neutral car. Peter Stetina (Vuelta Pais Vasco), Tom Boonen (Tour of Abu Dhabi) or Matt Brammeier (Tour of Utah) crashed because of an unsafe race route.

Many of them ended up in hospital with heavy, career influencing injuries and had a long, painful rehabilitation ahead of them. But the crashes also influenced the outcome of the race – something that is not in the interest of anyone. Not the teams, organiser, sponsors, media and the cycling fan at home. And think about it: there are no winners in those situations. The rider is hurt. The car driver or motorbike rider has this lifelong burden of having injured a rider or worse. The races don´t get a result that comes purely down to physical and tactical strength. Cycling as sport but also as means of transportation for everyone will be associated with such tragic events.

It´s clear: Cycling´s biggest problem was doping and still has to be fought. But the safety issues that are obvious, should get the same attention and priority as the fight for clean sport. Not only because lives can be lost but also because there wasn´t done much until now. Last major change was the Extreme Weather Protocol that was introduced this year. And before that, and only after the death of Andrei Kivilev, the UCI made helmets compulsory in 2003.

But from that year till now cycling has made also a tremendous change. The globalisation of cycling created many new races in countries around the world and the fight against doping shifted the focus of improvement more to a focus on training, equipment and nutrition. Riders train harder, are more efficient and look for every improvement that is possible. We get the best support from our teams to be better and faster, our bike sponsors are striving for faster and lighter bikes, we are doing aerodynamic tests to be 0.5 seconds quicker over 10 kilometers, electronic shiftings help us to shift faster and since 2016 we are allowed to ride on disc brakes so we can brake later. That all leads to a situation where the peloton rides faster and takes more risk. Pressure is on everyone to perform and be in front.

It´s part of this evolution process in modern cycling to improve not only the rider and bike but also the race course where the peloton is racing on. It´s necessary to set higher and better standards for professional bike races and that´s not up to the riders but to the organisers and the UCI. It´s easy to say that the riders are doing the race and therefore have the responsibility for it. But it´s simply not true. There are so many things in a race that are beyond the control of a rider: dangerous finishes, all the other vehicles that follow the race, spectators and weather for example. The riders are busy enough with concentrating on the race and need to trust organisers and the rules that they will be guided safely by experienced people on carefully chosen roads.

We need to work together to keep this sport safe and give sense to the tragic accident of Antoine Demoitie. It would be great if we can see some major changes and development out of a discussion over safety. We need to start talking openly about it now. That´s what I expect from my governing body and rider association. For starters it would be good to see more experienced, well trained drivers in cars and on motorbikes, a yearly statistic that keeps track of crashes in races in order to see a positive or negative development and more signs/flashing lights that indicate sharp corners or dangerous points.

Tomorrow at the start of the 3 Days of De Panne we will mourn the loss of Antoine and pay respect to him, his family and team after this horrible accident. We owe it to Antoine that we do everything to let that never happen again.
 
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