The number of falls among prominent cyclists and serious injuries has increased in recent days. This sparks the discussion about security. It ranges from “massacre” to occupational hazard.
Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the 2022 and 2023 Tour of France and also the top favorite for the 2024 edition, is in hospital with broken bones and a lung injury. Remco Evenepoel, world time trial champion, is in hospital with a fracture of his right collarbone and shoulder blade.
Wout van Aert, winner of the green jersey for best sprinter at the 2022 Tour, is recovering from a broken collarbone and multiple rib fractures. Lennard Kämna, who has won a stage in each of the major tours, is in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Tenerife.
“Stop, stop, stop, let’s stop the massacre”
In addition to these prominent names, there are other professional cyclists who have suffered serious falls in the past few days. Jay Vine suffered serious bone fractures during the Tour of the Basque Country. The Australian is an important helper of Tadej Pogacar, supposedly Vingegaard’s strongest rival, when it comes to the yellow jersey at the Tour of France in the summer.
There is – once again – discussion about safety in cycling, and there are striking statements. “Stop, stop, stop, let’s stop the massacre,” Thierry Gouvenou told the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. Gouvenou is race director at Paris-Roubaix, the classic that is on the program on Sunday (April 7th, 2024). He sees the problems with the riders’ speed, which is constantly increasing both on average and on descents.
“We’re getting faster and faster because the material is constantly being developed. It’s like in Formula 1,” said German professional Nils Politt in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. His compatriot Simon Geschke specifically addressed the mass crash on Thursday (April 4th, 2024) at the Tour of the Basque Country: “It’s this whoever brakes loses mentality. It’s super tragic, but from my point of view it’s the drivers’ nervousness “Everyone wanted to be in the top ten on this descent. And if no one brakes, something like this happens. But it’s hard to pinpoint anyone to blame.”
Mathieu van der Poel sees it similarly: “I think the most dangerous element in cycling is the riders themselves. There are risks involved, and the biggest problem is: everyone wants to be in the same place at the front, and that’s not possible,” he explained 29-year-old world champion told “L’Équipe”.
ARD expert Gerska: “The increase is more of a coincidence”
Holger Gerska is a cycling expert for ARD. For him, the increase in falls is “more of a coincidence” than a structural safety problem. Van Aert’s fall in the semi-classic “Across Flanders” was due to high speed, but no one knows whether this was actually the case in the north of Spain. “Some oil on the road, tree roots under the asphalt, it can have many causes. We don’t know yet,” said Gerska.
He doesn’t see the races as the “severest problem”, but rather the training. “More and more cars, more and more obstacles such as traffic islands, more and more roundabouts” made cycling more dangerous. He also hears more and more often that drivers are becoming more aggressive towards racing cyclists, but this cannot be substantiated by scientific studies.
A lot has been done for safety
Like ARD expert Gerska, Politt doesn’t see a structural problem. A lot has been done with security in mind: “A lot has changed in the last few years.” Dangerous curves on descents were secured with foam blocks, similar to alpine skiing.
Politt is one of the contenders for a place among the top three drivers at Paris-Roubaix. In the “Hell of the North”, the infamous path through the Arenberg forest is a dangerous spot. The organizers reacted and installed a chicane before entering the cobblestone passage to slow down the drivers.
Thomas Braml, Sportschau, April 4th, 2024 2:43 p.m
“We’ve been warning everyone for months. The race organizers are setting up countless things. But we’ve noticed that the crashes are only increasing,” said race director Gouvenou and therefore called on the drivers to be aware of the problem of high speeds and extreme risk to sharpen.
Nils Politt from Cologne thinks it’s an occupational risk that everyone has to take: “You should have respect. But you can’t be afraid. If fear comes with you, you drive carefully. And then you’ve more or less already lost.”
