Updated:
save
The Avenida Korfantego Its last section ends in a very long straight of more than a kilometer with a slight negative slope. The place is one of the main boulevards of Katowice and the scene usually chosen for the final stage of the Tour of Poland that ends in that city. It is not the first time that this arrival forces the peloton to raise its voice, as its unevenness raises the speed of the sprint as in few places, making the last meters a place conducive to falls. Accidents that at that speed multiply the danger of serious injury.
On Monday, the fears became reality at that point in the Polish city when, in his eagerness to win, the Dutchman Groenewegen cornered his rival Fabio Jakobsen until he collided with the protective barriers. The brutal blow blew up half the squad, which yesterday went to war to demand more security measures from the race organizers.
“Every year we suffer the same stupid downhill sprint on the Tour of Poland. Every year I wonder why the organizers think it’s a good idea. Mass sprints are already dangerous in themselves, you don’t need to increase your speed above 80 km / h to make them more spectacular, “he reflected. Simon Geschke, German cyclist, winner of a stage in the Tour de France.
Like him, other teammates in the peloton demanded a change in the layout of some tests and, also, in the security measures that the organizers have in those critical final meters. “We only put our hands on our heads when things like this happen. A sprint finish on a shitty circuit and over 80 km / h is crazy! Sometimes it gives me the feeling that we are simple cattle that are taken to the road to give a show, period», Pointed out the Spanish José Joaquín Rojas, from the Movistar team.
In the same sense, the Italian Fabio Sabatini, from the Cofidis team, described as “suicidal” an arrival like the one designed by the Tour of Poland and the Spaniard Fran Ventoso went further, asking the brokers’ union for explanations. “If that happens, it is because the CPA allows it”, said the CCC Pro Team rider.
In a season where efforts have focused on anti-coronavirus protocols, the Jakobsen accident has come to uncover the safety gaps that still persist in most cycling races. “They need to start listening to cyclists”Robbie McEwen, a retired sprinter who knows well what it is to play the guy in those final meters, cried out yesterday in «Cyclingnews». Perhaps that is why, ever since he got off his bike, he has struggled unsuccessfully to that the UCI introduce new barriers that are less harmful to cyclists. Jakobsen’s fall may give those in charge of the platoon pause for once.
“No matter the place or the level of the race, the UCI must implement the need to have barriers that are safe when arriving at the sprint,” he argued McEwen, which thus joined the unanimous cry of the peloton after the fall of Jakobsen that has revealed a chronic problem.
See them
comments
.
