Some of this dangers have been historically considered part of what makes the sport special. Weather has always played a role in setting the stage for epic cycling. But this year, a few weather events have made news and caused cyclists to question the conditions in which they are allowed to (or made to) race in. The first event took place in the...well, in the deserts of Oman. Nevermind the basic concept of setting up bike races in the desert to begin with (money talks - after all, the World Cup will take place in Qatar), but on stage 5 of the Tour of Oman, a sandstorm along with heat reported to be approaching 48C (120F), caused the stage to be shortened and eventually cancelled. The heat was such that some bicycle tires were exploding.
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| Tirreno Adriatico Stage 5 - snow and subfreezing temperatures Image by CorVos / CyclingTips |
Around 3 weeks later, some of those same cyclists were climbing up the high mountains in Italy during the Tirreno Adriatico, where on stage 5, as cyclists approached the finish line at a mountain top, a blizzard started to come down. Along with sub-freezing temperatures and the sloping roads quickly accumulating with snow, the situation was becoming very dangerous. But since the race was so close to the end, it was allowed to continue. Although conditions were not horrible for the first group of finishers, those who arrived down the order some 20 minutes later, had to endure some incredibly treacherous conditions after the TV coverage ended. But sometimes it's not only the heat or cold - you can also see footage of Geraint Thomas being literally thrown of his bike by some insane winds on Gent Wevelgem (here) not long ago this year.
But again, weather is always an integral part of a bicycle race and many purists brush aside complaints from today's racers and instead point to historic examples of epic weather racing. It's a hard man's sport! Actually, it's a hard woman's sport as well. Earlier this year, Australian cyclist Loren Rowney crashed in the final sprint of an European race and broke her collarbone. Nothing new, but if you watch footage of the crash here , you will notice that the cause of the crash was a spectator who reached into the course and pulled her handlebars causing her to stumble across the finish line. Fans are an integral part of the sport. When the arena stretches over 200kms in distance, it is impossible to separate the athletes from the fans. This is usually one of the most beautiful aspects of professional cycling, but sometimes, as this other video linked below shows, it is also one of the most frightening.
Fans - an integral part of the sport and an integral part of the danger
But this year has been special and some hidden dangers have made their presence known in the two biggest single day races of the calendar. In the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, one of the support vehicles which normally provides mechanical assistance to riders, attempted to pass the leading group of competitors at the wrong time, and the result, as seen in the video link below, was terrifying. But thankfully it could've been worse, and despite some broken bones and road rash, the rider will be able to compete again. Amazingly, a few minutes later, another support vehicle rear-ended a team car which was about to help a cyclist causing him to be thrown into the air. Again, luckily, he will be able to race again. Although both drivers were professionals with experience in many bike races, one has to wonder if more can be done to make sure drivers participating in bike races can be trained further to insure that such incidences never take place.
Sometimes even those who are there to help can be part of the danger
A week later, on Paris-Roubaix, possibly the most famous of the single-day races, the peloton was crossing the a railroad when the gates started to come down. Chaos ensued and as the peloton was now being cut in half, riders ignored the gates, ringing bells and lone policeman trying to control the situation and continued to cross the railroad line in front of a high-speed train. I count 7 seconds from the last rider clearing the railroad and the train arriving at the crossing. Moments like this sure make cyclists' calls for safer conditions lose some value. The race judges did not disqualify any of the riders involved in this incident. Although the gates came down at the worst possible time and the first few cyclists had no choice but to go through, many of the cyclists following and riding across the gates after they have been lowered should've been disqualified.
Cyclists can often be very good examples of unsafe behavior.
The dangers can be constant on a bike race. Recently, there has been another horrible crash because someone decided that steel posts in the middle of the final stretch on Tour of Basque Country Stage 1 would be safe (as seen here). And this last video highlights the key to rider safety. Professional cyclists entrust their lives to the people who organize the events and the sport. The UCI's paramount duty should be to protect the people who take part of each event, including cyclists and spectators. They generally do a great job at that and have rules put in place to prevent all the situations listed here from happening (aside from the weather of course). What needs to take place is a more strict and precise adherence to the rules, from staff training to rider disqualifications, and a clear set of rules dictating when the weather should force a race to be stopped or cancelled altogether.
The sport is never going to be a safe sport, but if anything else can be done to insure the safety of participants, it should be done. After all, those cyclists are going 100km/h, on 2.5cm tires, wearing nothing but lycra.
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