Five hours of surgery on Thursday to reduce fractures to the face. Today, the attempt to awaken to assess any brain damage: doctors are moderately optimistic. After the terrible accident at the Tour of Poland, the Dutch national champion Fabio Jakobsen continues to fight for his life at the hospital in Katowice. The “hunt for the greaser” – top sprinter Dylan Groenewegen who caused the fall with a crazy and intentional shoulder – does not slacken. Patrick Lefevere, manager of Jakobsen’s team, asks for “prison for a criminal act” while the federation has announced a record disqualification. Groenewegen – who broke his collarbone in the fall – said he «can’t find the words to describe how sorry I am for Fabio and the other fallen riders. At the moment Fabio’s health is the most important thing. I always think of him ».
At the center of the controversy now, however, there are the organizers and the Federation itself. On the final straight downhill the sprinters touched 85 km / h (10 more than a standard sprint) and, above all, they were seen bouncing off of barriers, low and very light, first crumbled and then turned into bullets. A video shot by a spectator shows that in the area where Jakobsen crashed there were potentially lethal concrete blocks. Only the absence of the public due to the anti-Covid measures, then, prevented the tragedy.
On this topic neither the organizer Czesław Lang nor the Cycling Union spoke. Incredibly, the regulations provide very strict rules on the length of socks to wear during the time trial (“not beyond the midpoint between the ankle and the fibula head”) but nothing on the shape, structure and strength of the barriers. In the videos that show situations similar to the Tour or the Giro (of shoulders like those of a Groenewegen with a brain clouded by fatigue, unfortunately you can see the barriers that do not move an inch and the rider involved bouncing inside of the road usually remedying a broken shoulder blade.
Silvio Martinello, former superfine sprinter and Olympic champion, thinks this way: “At the Giro d’Italia the last 500 meters of the finish straight are secured with barriers of about two meters, uncomfortable for the public but much safer for the runners. In Poland the disaster was caused by the barriers, badly positioned and probably not hooked together, jumped like pins: they were the real cause of what happened ». Another great ex of the sprint, the Australian McEwan: «For ten years we have been asking the federation for barriers that do not flex without receiving answers. If they had put them in Katowice, Fabio would have got away with some plaster ».
In a great stage race, renting and handling of adequate quality barriers are an important expense item but also a first level logistical burden. The Tour of Poland (on Thursday in the second stage in Zabrze the Danish champion Mads Pedersen won, again in the sprint) is a race with great resources, included in the World Tour despite a relatively short experience. As long as the federation does not impose precise rules for barriers or to avoid the risk of a final straight downhill, sanctioning the organizers is technically impossible.
August 6, 2020 (change August 6, 2020 | 23:13)
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