2024 Pro thread

[eins4eins]

Its like some of you guys never seen bike racing before...slowing down before an potentially decisive section

[BdaGhisallo]

Just saw the crash at Dwaars door Vlaanderen: I have a hard time understanding that this stretch is considered so dangerous. Where the crash happened the road was wide, surface good, no narrowing in sight. It didn't even look that the peloton was compressing or there was a lot of shoving. It looks more to me like a touch of wheels because of a lack of attention.

What am I missing?

there was a narrowing coming up. They were fighting for position into the Kanarieberg, which is single lane climb immediately after a right hand corner.

its a very dangerous section as they're coming down this wide road with high speed. Thats why it was removed this year from the route for sunday. In hindsight, they should have made the same decision for DDV

If it's so dangerous, why didn't they slow down?

I've seen amateurs sprint towards oncoming traffic to gain positions in the bunch, why would pros slow down before a narrowing of the road when going faster means getting into the narrowing in a better position?

The point is that it is racing and it is always going to be risky and dangerous. All this talk of Flanders Classics removing this stretch from the RVV to make the race safer is ridiculous. The road is super wide, straight and with no irregular surfaces - you couldn't get a "safer" road. Do you recall the wide and "safe" finish to one of the sprint stages in last year's TdF? The sprints had been relatively calm up to then and they get to a "safer" finish and there was carnage!

This crash was a racing incident. Riders were pushing to the max and something went wrong. It could happen on any road and at any time.

Frankly, I am continually amazed that there aren't more mass crashes in races and that there aren't more big injury tolls like WVA has suffered.

[tymon_tm]

we should not dismiss any potential hazard that may be directly linked to the quality of road. if they took it out of Flanders there must had been a reason to do so. you either review roads towards safety or you don't, can't have it both ways and expect safer racing.

as for actual racing - Flanders gonna flounder (whatever...) but the Itzulia Basque Country stage race looks pretty amazing on paper; Remco, Jonas, Sepp and Primoz are all on the start list. now how about that for a 'small' race?

edit: the name misled me - it's actually Vuelta Pais Vasco, not so small after all...

[Flasher]

At first I thought maybe the abrupt transition to the bike path/lane might have had something to do with the crash, but it looks like everyone used it as an escape route rather than it being the cause.

If you look at the slo-mo it looks like your first assumption is correct, it's a reasonable sized U shaped gully between the road and bike path, the first riders through are weaving to get out which caused the riders behind to pile up.

[eins4eins]

there was a narrowing coming up. They were fighting for position into the Kanarieberg, which is single lane climb immediately after a right hand corner.

its a very dangerous section as they're coming down this wide road with high speed. Thats why it was removed this year from the route for sunday. In hindsight, they should have made the same decision for DDV

If it's so dangerous, why didn't they slow down?

I've seen amateurs sprint towards oncoming traffic to gain positions in the bunch, why would pros slow down before a narrowing of the road when going faster means getting into the narrowing in a better position?

The point is that it is racing and it is always going to be risky and dangerous. All this talk of Flanders Classics removing this stretch from the RVV to make the race safer is ridiculous. The road is super wide, straight and with no irregular surfaces - you couldn't get a "safer" road. Do you recall the wide and "safe" finish to one of the sprint stages in last year's TdF? The sprints had been relatively calm up to then and they get to a "safer" finish and there was carnage!

This crash was a racing incident. Riders were pushing to the max and something went wrong. It could happen on any road and at any time.

Frankly, I am continually amazed that there aren't more mass crashes in races and that there aren't more big injury tolls like WVA has suffered.

Its dangerous because during the ronde, the peloton is basically complete at this point as its the first difficult section and 170 people want to be first into the corner. If you listen to some interviews, its absolute nightmare for the riders. Similar to the entry onto arenberg sector in roubaix.


off course accidents can and will happen anywhere, but thats no exucse to not make the race safer.

[BdaGhisallo]

If it's so dangerous, why didn't they slow down?

I've seen amateurs sprint towards oncoming traffic to gain positions in the bunch, why would pros slow down before a narrowing of the road when going faster means getting into the narrowing in a better position?

The point is that it is racing and it is always going to be risky and dangerous. All this talk of Flanders Classics removing this stretch from the RVV to make the race safer is ridiculous. The road is super wide, straight and with no irregular surfaces - you couldn't get a "safer" road. Do you recall the wide and "safe" finish to one of the sprint stages in last year's TdF? The sprints had been relatively calm up to then and they get to a "safer" finish and there was carnage!

This crash was a racing incident. Riders were pushing to the max and something went wrong. It could happen on any road and at any time.

Frankly, I am continually amazed that there aren't more mass crashes in races and that there aren't more big injury tolls like WVA has suffered.

Its dangerous because during the ronde, the peloton is basically complete at this point as its the first difficult section and 170 people want to be first into the corner. If you listen to some interviews, its absolute nightmare for the riders. Similar to the entry onto arenberg sector in roubaix.


off course accidents can and will happen anywhere, but thats no exucse to not make the race safer.

So there should be no downhill sections of road in races where the riders are likely to still be together and racing hard?

[Karvalo]

.

[eins4eins]

I didn't say that. But if they remove especially dangerous section, i'm not gonna call it ridiculous.

Btw, this shot of the crash popped up in my feed. Didn't see a wider angle like this before.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5EU-F9M ... p0N3htaWd6

[Mr.Gib]

The crash was apparently caused by Benoot when he got out of the saddle and momentarily decelerated and caused those behind him to touch his rear wheel. An amateur mistake. I once did the same to a bunch of guys in my club...

On climbs yes, but I've never seen this problem at high speed. Would not the inertia at such high speed have prevented a significant deceleration? Been in lots of groups at high speed and never had a bike come back at me enough to matter. And most importantly, is it possible that a rider of Benoots exceptional experience and skill would ever make such a mistake?

Sorry you did it to a bunch guys in your club. Hope it wasn't at high speed cause that would be .

[BdaGhisallo]

I didn't say that. But if they remove especially dangerous section, i'm not gonna call it ridiculous.

Btw, this shot of the crash popped up in my feed. Didn't see a wider angle like this before.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5EU-F9M ... p0N3htaWd6

There was nothing especially dangerous about that section of road, though.

[petje891]

The crash was apparently caused by Benoot when he got out of the saddle and momentarily decelerated and caused those behind him to touch his rear wheel. An amateur mistake. I once did the same to a bunch of guys in my club...

On climbs yes, but I've never seen this problem at high speed. Would not the inertia at such high speed have prevented a significant deceleration? Been in lots of groups at high speed and never had a bike come back at me enough to matter. And most importantly, is it possible that a rider of Benoots exceptional experience and skill would ever make such a mistake?

Sorry you did it to a bunch guys in your club. Hope it wasn't at high speed cause that would be .

In my experience you always "pull" your bike back a bit when coming out of the saddle, even at high speeds. So could be the case in this crash as well.

[garbageman]

The crash was apparently caused by Benoot when he got out of the saddle and momentarily decelerated and caused those behind him to touch his rear wheel. An amateur mistake. I once did the same to a bunch of guys in my club...

On climbs yes, but I've never seen this problem at high speed. Would not the inertia at such high speed have prevented a significant deceleration? Been in lots of groups at high speed and never had a bike come back at me enough to matter. And most importantly, is it possible that a rider of Benoots exceptional experience and skill would ever make such a mistake?

Sorry you did it to a bunch guys in your club. Hope it wasn't at high speed cause that would be .

Considering Benoot himself said that's what he thought had happened, obviously it's possible. He's an athlete, not some infallible god of bike handling.

[TobinHatesYou]

At first I thought maybe the abrupt transition to the bike path/lane might have had something to do with the crash, but it looks like everyone used it as an escape route rather than it being the cause.

If you look at the slo-mo it looks like your first assumption is correct, it's a reasonable sized U shaped gully between the road and bike path, the first riders through are weaving to get out which caused the riders behind to pile up.

In the end that's not what I saw in that slow-mo clip. Those riders where already taking evasive action to avoid the domino effect of what happened besides them or at their hips/blindspot. The start of the crash was unfortunately caused by Wout not protecting his front wheel a couple meters to the left of that bike lane/path.

[spdntrxi]

^ I dont know about that.. you see that flying wheel in the middle of the 2 visma riders = crash has already started. See the redbull helmet on the left shoulder of the visma rider in the middle.. that's WVA

[TobinHatesYou]

^ I dont know about that.. you see that flying wheel in the middle of the 2 visma riders = crash has already started. See the redbull helmet on the left shoulder of the visma rider in the middle.. that's WVA

That is a Uno-X yellow/red helmet. Wout was the first to go down and he was sitting third wheel just to the right of the solid white line. The "flying wheel" is Wout's bike.