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Police give Team Sky riders a refresher in Aussie road laws ahead of Tour Down Under

Officers in South Australia pulled over riders who were training ahead of season-opener

Several Team Sky riders were given talking-to and warning by police while training in Adelaide’s Central Business District (CBD) ahead of the Tour Down Under (TDU), which starts next weekend.

A photo posted on social media on Monday morning showed riders from the UCI WorldTour outfit standing by the roadside as they were “verbally educated” and issued a warning by officers from SA Police over their conduct on the road.

A spokesman for the force told Bicycling Australia that members of the UK-registered team had “allegedly failed to give way at a pedestrian crossing and went through a red light … that sort of thing.”

He added: “As part of Operation Safe Cycling 2018 police officers spoke to a number of cyclists on Pulteney Street in the Adelaide CBD this morning after identifying a number of traffic offences committed by the group,”

“Police stop cyclist all the time but obviously there will be a further emphasis during the Tour Down Under period. It was just a verbal warning today,” he added.

Team Sky named its line-up for the race, the first of the 2018 UCI WorldTour season, this morning.

 

 

In what it describes as a “young and exciting” squad, three riders will make their Team Sky debuts –

Egan Bernal, who will be riding for the general classification, sprinter Kristoffer Halvorsen, and Chris Lawless.

The line-up will be completed by Jon Dibben, Owain Doull, Salvatore Puccio and Lukasz Wisniowski.

Team Sky Sport Director Brett Lancaster said: “It’s a really young and exciting team and we’re keen to see how these guys develop.

“We’ll be gunning to try and take a stage win. We’ve got Kristoffer as our lead sprinter. His form is a bit unknown coming straight from Norway and stepping off the plane into temperatures of close to 40 degrees.

“Puccio is our road captain and the most experienced rider in the team. He’s been pro since 2012 but he’s only 28 years old, which tells you how young the team is.

“Egan has already raced in a lot of big races,” he continued. “He’s no longer a neo-pro but he’s very young still. It’s going to be a really good chance to see where he is at, especially against the Australian riders who are in a home race and adapted already.

“We’ll see what happens come Willunga Hill and we’ll look to put him in a good position.”

Lancaster added: “It’s Willunga again where the race should be decided. Stage four has a good climb too but it’s similar to what we’ve seen in recent years. That Willunga day will be interesting for sure.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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leqin | 6 years ago
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Just send the SAP some thing... in a jiffy bag of course.

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velo-nh | 6 years ago
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It would be amusing to see pro riders stop at a pedestrian crossing.  Yes, they're legally required to, but generally I think people would just agree to not notice the infraction.  

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Beecho replied to velo-nh | 6 years ago
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velo-nh wrote:

It would be amusing to see pro riders stop at a pedestrian crossing.   

During the Tour de Yorkshire preferably.  Would bunch the sprint finishes up nicely.

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HarryTrauts replied to velo-nh | 6 years ago
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velo-nh wrote:

It would be amusing to see pro riders stop at a pedestrian crossing.  Yes, they're legally required to, but generally I think people would just agree to not notice the infraction.  

 

Why? They are using public roads and need to stick to the rules/laws.  I agree that the police have probably got something better to do with their time but it's a fair cop.

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Lopey66 | 6 years ago
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Some weeks ago, there was FB that the South Australian Police were going to be vigilant on cyclist during the TDU, pic of the police incident with teamsky  https://twitter.com/lopey66/status/950135901056675840 also on TV stations reported a cyclist practicing sticky bottle skills got reported as a dangerous stunt  https://twitter.com/7NewsAdelaide/status/950190377608163328

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BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
4 likes

The Australian police have a tendency to ignore motorists violations and focus on people on bikes by having specific 'operations' (Op Pedro just recently) to go out and penalise/criminalise people on bikes even though they know that Australian drivers kill and maim with virtual impunity and Oz police ignore the new laws that were supposed to protect bicyclists.

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fukawitribe replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
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BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

The Australian police have a tendency to ignore motorists violations and focus on people on bikes by having specific 'operations' (Op Pedro just recently) to go out and penalise/criminalise people on bikes even though they know that Australian drivers kill and maim with virtual impunity and Oz police ignore the new laws that were supposed to protect bicyclists.

IME Australian police have a tendency to not ignore any violations regardless of the vehicle type, often cited to me as the reason the motorways more closely resemble a public information film version of them than the chaotic stupidity I tend to see here in the UK. Yeah, they seem to have a bit of a grudge against cyclists - Sydney and the CBD in particular seem particularly awful - but it's a matter of degree from what i've seen; they just bust anything that moves.

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captain_slog | 6 years ago
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Training at rush hour in the CBD? Surely the ride must have been more in the nature of a recce.

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scouser_andy | 6 years ago
1 like

Here's the cops that have nothing better to do...  https://twitter.com/lopey66/status/950135901056675840

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Prosper0 | 6 years ago
7 likes

Lucky they got away with just a warning in Australia. Did they actually have bells on their bikes?

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