He Tower of France 2023 will start this Saturday with the pain still fresh for the death of Gino Mader just two weeks ago, after a very hard fall in a test in Switzerland. And also with fear and concern installed in the peloton, after that fatal accident once again set off an alarm for safety in the competition and the risks that cyclists run in each test. Risks that are almost impossible to eliminate in an elite race, but that seem bigger and bigger on the World Tour.
“Professional cycling just got significantly more dangerous”assured Adam Hansenformer broker and, since March, president of the Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA, for its acronym in French). “Bikes are much faster and the overall level of competition has grown a lot. When all of those factors combine, it creates a significantly higher level of danger.”
Mäder, a 26-year-old Swiss and one of the most promising cyclists in his country, died on June 16, one day after suffering a serious accident during the fifth stage of the tour of switzerland.
Mäder passed away on June 16 after suffering a very hard fall in Switzerland. Photo REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini/File Photo
The team member Bahrain-Victorious he fell at kilometer 197 of the queen stage of the Swiss event, between Fiesch and La Punt, in the vertiginous descent of the Col de la Albula, after a hellish day marked by three ascents above 2,000 meters of altitude. He was found “inert in the water” of a ravine near the highway and “immediately resuscitated and transported to Coire hospital by air”, but died soon after.
The Spanish Fernando Escartincurrent Technical Director of the Back to Spainregretted what happened by Mäder, but stated that “nothing could have been done to prevent it”.
“In the descent of a mountain pass we all know what can happen and this accident is not the first nor will it be the last. They are racing situations, the bikes run a lot, there are accidents from time to time, some more serious and others less, from time to time time there is someone deceased”, the former Iberian cyclist told EFE. “It’s a shame, but this is how it is, you can’t do anything, the road (in Switzerland) was clean, there was no problem, but when you go down at that speed you never know where you might fall.”
The route of stage 14 of the Tour de France, which will have a downhill finish. Photo www.letour.fr
The 110th edition of The large loopespecially for climbers, It will be full of ascents and descents: it will have eight days of high mountain, four of medium mountain, eight flat and only one time trial. Four stages will have finals uphill and only one downhill, like the one in the Tour de Suisse that ended in tragedy.
It will be the 14th, which will be run on July 15 between Annemasse and Morzine, in a high mountain area, the one that worries the peloton the most, due to the recent history of Mäder’s death. The 152-kilometre route will end with a technical and fast descent, with more than 11 kilometers at an 8.5 percent average gradient, from the Col du Joux Plane pass, located at more than 1,690 meters above sea level, to Morzine.
When asked by one of his followers on social networks about whether there was a possibility of altering the route to finish at the top or add a few kilometers after the descent, Hansen stated that he would have a meeting with the company in the coming days. UCI, ASO (the company that owns the test) and the teams to deal with that issue.
“I am a runner who takes less risks than others because I am very aware of the danger,” Pinot said. Photo Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)
Thibaut Pinotwinner of stages of the Tour in both the Alps and the Pyrenees, also called on his own colleagues to become more aware of the risks that exist in the competition.
“It is often said that you have to switch off your brain on the bike. I don’t like that idea. We are doing a dangerous sport. I am a runner who takes less risks than others because I am very aware of the danger,” said the Frenchman.
Hansen agreed: “Maybe we need better education for cyclists, or somehow create a situation where they can’t reach such high speeds. Cyclists need to be aware that cycling is a dangerous sport and they need to be well informed about the risks”.
Remco Evenepoel He also called on both the cyclists and the organizers to meditate.
“I hope that (Mäder’s death) is food for thought both for the organizers and for ourselves. (…) It was not a good decision to let us finish that dangerous descent. As cyclists, we must also think about the risks we take when down a mountain,” he reflected in a post on his Twitter account. Twittershortly before confirming the death of the Swiss.
He himself had been involved in a horrifying accident a few years ago, also on a descent. The Belgian fell five meters into the void from a bridge when he was competing in the Lombardy twist of 2020, while going downhill on a road that flows into Lake Como, less than 50 kilometers from the end of the test.
Fortunately, it landed in an area full of trees, which cushioned the blow. He never lost consciousness and, although he ended up with a fractured pelvis and a bruised lung, his life was not in danger.
The fall of Evenepoel, added to the very strong blow that the Dutchman had suffered days before Fabio Jakobsen near the goal of the return to poland (his compatriot Dylan Groenewege cornered him against the signs that delimited the route, he crashed into the protections and was in a coma for two days, before miraculously recovering) and other race accidents that occurred in 2020, led the UCI to review the regulations and propose regulations stricter for testing.
After Mäder’s death, the debate on safety was revived in the World Tour and the main focus was placed, in this case, on the measures that could be taken to reduce the risks of cyclists as much as possible, especially on descents. more dangerous as the one that claimed the life of the Swiss.
The 2023 edition of the Tour will be full of ascents and descents in mountain areas. Photo AP Photo/Daniel Cole
An idea that has been talked about for some time is the possibility of placing nets, as they are used in alpine skiing, to prevent a runner from losing control and going off the track from falling into the void. Will that idea be implemented in the Tour that starts on Saturday?
“At ASO they are very open to doing everything possible to ensure that the race is as safe as possible. There are many aspects that we can improve for the safety of the drivers, but when it comes to a situation like Gino Mäder’s, it is a really tough challenge,” Hansen said.
As the discussion continues, the peloton will face the biggest event of the season with the present memory of Mäder and with concern and fear for what could happen. And for this reason, for cyclists this will be a different edition of the Tour de France.
look too
2023-06-29 09:01:19
#fears #risks #measures #avoid #tragedy
