Cycling: The new year is less than two months old and professional cycling safety is in the headlines again. The stumbling block was an event at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne yesterday when Lotto Soudal pro Stig Broeckx was tripped over by an escort motorcycle - resulting in a broken collarbone, broken rib and sprained wrist. The former president of the drivers' union CPA calls for consequences.
Tour of Flanders, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Classica san Sebastian: Accidents involving support vehicles or motorcycles occurred at all of these races last season. There was a lot of talk, a lot of discussion and what happened – that's right: nothing. The incident yesterday at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne should now bring the topic back to the attention of the UCI and the race organizers. It happened 35 km before the finish in Kuurne: Stig Broeckx swerved out of the field to orientate himself - an escort motorcycle approaching from behind at high speed recognized the situation too late, didn't brake, didn't swerve and touched the 25-year-old Belgian , who crashes into the street at and is subsequently hospitalized where he is diagnosed with a compound fracture of his collarbone and a fractured rib.
From the ranks of Lotto Soudal it is still quiet at the moment – the incident was announced on Twitter in a very sober manner, otherwise you will save any comment for the moment. That was last season on the part of Oleg Tinkov (Tinkoff) and Jim Ochowicz (BMC) been different after similar accidents by Peter Sagan and Greg van Avermaet. With the professionals, the measure has long been full anyway. BMC pro Manuel Quinziato tweeted: "It is enough! You don't drive past the field at 90 km/h, PERIOD! We finally need rules!” – André Greipel and other professionals retweeted the comment.
Now that's enough! You don't pass the peloton 90km/h PERIOD! We need rules! (cc @UCI_cycling) https://t.co/iTfycIJkm2
— Manuel Quinziato (@manuelquinziato) February 28rd 2016
The former president of the riders' union CPA, Cédric Vasseur, sounds the alarm in the British cycling magazine Cycling Weekly: “Honestly, the UCI must act now as it is absolutely unacceptable for riders to be hit by escort vehicles or motorcycles. These professionals sacrifice so much to get there and have the right form on time and an incident like that messes everything up.” Vassuer is particularly annoyed at the inaction on the part of the UCI and the organizers after so much talk and promises.
“I was President of the CPA and I heard the conversations in the meetings of the UCI. They keep saying that safety is the number one priority in a UCI race, but today you saw again that that's just blah blah. Nothing happens!" We couldn't have said it better. Something must finally be done to prevent such incidents as much as possible. You have to think about penalties for the respective drivers of the vehicles and the organizers, but also about the prevention of such accidents: The use of specially trained drivers must finally be made mandatory for the race organizers. Only then can things change for the better in the long run.