“The positioning of those barriers makes zero sense”: More crash controversy hits Vuelta a España (+ director apologises for “small mishap” of Remco Evenepoel incident); Taylor Zwift takes training indoors + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Taylor Zwift takes training indoors
👏👏👏 @GoZwift pic.twitter.com/S54VwoDEqT
— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) August 29, 2023
Presumably top hits include ‘Cruel summer (training on the turbo because the weather’s grim)’ and ‘Bad blood bags’… yes, I had to Google ‘Taylor Swift songs’ to make those references…
Vuelta director apologises for "small mishap" of Remco Evenepoel finish crash, admits "we would have liked a better start" after weekend carnage
One completely normal, boring, uneventful stage of La Vuelta a España — is that really too much to ask? Rain, rider complaints, flooding, protests, crashes, high winds, crashes, more crashes… just give me a sprint stage suitable for an afternoon siesta please.
> Police uncover Vuelta a España protest plot to pour “400 litres of liquid” onto route
Following on from yesterday’s live blog, where we brought you Remco Evenepoel’s comments about the post-finish line crash which left him bloodied following stage victory, now the Vuelta’s director Javier Guillén has apologised to the Belgian and admitted “we all would have liked a better start” to the race.
[Rafa Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency]
“We are sorry for what happened at the finish line and we apologise,” he told Marca. “We will look into it.” However, from a sporting perspective, Guillén believes “everything went well”…
“Everything went well. We had a small mishap as soon as we crossed the finish line with Evenepoel. We will analyse what happened. Possibly a better management could have been done. Organisational issues cannot be escaped.
“In the big tours they always have starts that you never know how they are going to be. We depend on the weather circumstances and we have had rain in Barcelona after three months when everything was very dry. We had to deal with water, and the next [day] more rain. We had to deal with the cyclists, but the stages are taking place, beyond that we all would have liked a better start.
“A stage from a sporting point of view that has been perfect. The classification is very well-prepared for us. A very well-dimensioned stage. Arinsal is a very demanding climb with very hard ramps. The strongest has won. It was the first mountain stage and Andorra is a guarantee of success. It was a very exciting finish with a high-quality breakaway that was selected as we entered the Principality. Fortunately, the favourites fought for the stage. It was a great finish.”
Remco was less impressed, saying three days of incident in a row was “breaking my balls a bit now… I’ve had enough.”
“There was not enough space after the finish line, and I went between the cameras and soigneurs,” he said. “But it’s only some skin and meat gone from my head. But that’s good because it’s less weight for the uphills.”
Every cloud, Remco…
Is Aaron's new Cannondale Supersix Evo LAB71 the nicest bike in the office?
We go again...
News from this morning’s race meeting…
16 roundabouts in the final 16km of #LaVuelta23 stage 5 pic.twitter.com/cEra9YRUkk
— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) August 30, 2023
Five cool bikes for road and gravel from Canyon, Enigma, Orro, Basso and Lapierre
> Five cool bikes for road and gravel from Canyon, Enigma, Orro, Basso and Lapierre
Vuelta peloton counts cost of crashes as three riders leave race before stage five
[ASO/ Luis Angel Gomez / SprintCyclingAgency©2023]
The other side of all these Vuelta crashes is the riders abandoning the race, unable to continue. Three more have gone home ahead of stage five — Bryan Coquard, Kobe Goosens and Ruben Guerreiro.
Cofidis, the team of Coquard who crashed heavily in the fall around 10km from the finish yesterday, says the medical staff believe their sprinter has suffered a fractured scapula, which will be examined on his return to France.
Goosens said of his situation: “The wound to my knee is too deep. I’m mentally out, sometimes cycling is cruel. I’m going home to recover. I wish the team all the best, they will do good.”
Guerreiro suffered a fractured collarbone, meaning Enric Mas is down a helper and Movistar a potential stage winner as the race moves on to the eastern province of Castellón. The peloton seemingly happy to have a quiet day, with 40km done there is a sole leader, Eric Antonio Fagundez of Burgos-BH, four minutes clear.
EDIT: Just when you think things couldn’t get worse, Jayco AlUla’s Eddie Dunbar, following up his seventh place at the Giro, crashed in the neutral zone and has been forced to abandon, while teammate Filippo Zana is out with stomach problems. Tough day for them… time to go stage hunting.
Campervan driver faces $500 fine for ploughing into group of cyclists, injuring seven, in "terrifying" collision
Skills
A courteous use of skillz. pic.twitter.com/37nxodOoWK
— nyvelocity (@nyvelocity) August 30, 2023
Seeing how unlucky this Vuelta has been so far, the bottle probably rolled down the hill and took out several dropped riders…
British Cycling "looking forward" to working alongside Department for Culture, Media and Sport for physical activity drive
British Cycling is one of the organisations working with the government on a new Department for Culture, Media and Sport initiative to help an additional 3.5 million adults and children get physically active by 2030.
Breaking the numbers down, the department said it wanted participation targets of an additional 2.5 million adults and one million children taking part in sport by 2030. The taskforce, led by Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, Sports Minister Stuart Andrew and former England Rugby Union international Ugo Monye, will work with governing bodies, the physical activity sector and schools to aim to deliver the target by the end of the decade.
Kaden Groves wins back to back Vuelta stages after ANOTHER crash impacts the finish
After this morning’s controversy about yesterday’s barrier placement, here’s what happened today at La Vuelta…
Kaden Groves wins Stage 5!! 🇦🇺🏆
𝘿𝙍𝘼𝙈𝘼 at the finish line 🍿#LaVuelta | @kaden_groves pic.twitter.com/1crxnCCFjb
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 30, 2023
Kaden Groves outsprinted Filippo Ganna — yep, that’s not a typo — to win stage five of the Vuelta a España this afternoon. Ganna, whose enormous power was unleashed by Ineos Grenadiers to go for his own goals today, launched first, surging up to Groves’ back wheel before the Australian asserted himself as the fastest in the race to take a second win in as many days.
A caveat perhaps in the form of Juan Sebastián Molano and a couple of others being held up by a big crash at one of the 16 roundabouts in today’s final 16km. Despite the seemingly dry roads, several riders hit the deck at 3km to go, thankfully no GC contenders lost time as a result of that.
Remco Evenepoel remains in red, extending his advantage thanks to a cheeky bonus second raid at the sprint point 11km from the finish. Tomorrow, it’s time for another summit finish…
#LaVuelta23 pic.twitter.com/RzMnPTIm5g
— Cycling Memes (@Cycling_Memes1) August 30, 2023
"The positioning of those barriers makes zero sense": More crash controversy hits Vuelta a España
Some fallout from yesterday’s stage before today’s (hopefully uncontroversial and entirely straightforward one)…
Heartbreaking finish on stage 4 of #LaVuelta23
Marijn went for it. Beautiful teamwork to set Marijn up for the sprint finish but he went down in a crash with a few hundred meters to the line. Tomorrow’s another day. pic.twitter.com/k9WHXdcB4b
— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) August 29, 2023
One of the pre-stage favourites Marijn van den Berg, looking for his first Grand Tour stage win, crashed out of contention after seemingly taking a corner too hot. However, as many have pointed out on social media and TV since… did the barriers’ positioning contribute to the Dutchman’s fall?
The Sprint Kings 👑
Alpecin-Deceuninck have won sprints at all 3 Grand Tours this season after Kaden Groves wins Stage 4 of La Vuelta 😮💨
Watch full highlights on @RoadCode 👇🏼
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) August 29, 2023
Adam Blythe thinks so, pointing out the way the barrier turns back on itself and out into the road again…
“The hard thing with that,” he told GCN’s post-stage analysis. “Is that you’ve got the vision coming into the corner of where the barriers are… as a cyclist you always look for the exit of the corner and you can always generally judge or try to correct it. You saw him trying to correct it but what we couldn’t see until that final shot was the barrier was there, and then where he went into it there was a kick out from a metre, a metre and a half.
“I think the road had gone round and then moved back in […] the kick out moves back in a metre, a metre and a half, from where it was so it’s not… the organisers should have put that original barrier closer to make it narrower.”
Much of the discussion on Twitter post-stage agreed with Blythe…
Michael James saying: “The positioning of those barriers makes ZERO sense to anyone who has raced their bike in a professional race. Does ANYONE with ‘experience’ not look at things like this as the course is being set up? Interested in the takes of the former pros?”
MichaelB questioned why they didn’t just mount the barrier closer, as Blythe suggested, making the turn narrower but with no chance of catching anyone out with the kick back in.
Niall Downey noted, like our own weary minds have, that this is day four (and this morning, day five) of the same rider safety discussion. You’ve really got to feel for the peloton…
Thankfully, Van den Berg told Dutch news outlet Wielerflits that he’s okay after the crash and “the wounds are not too bad”.
Let’s see what stage five has in store for us…
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Whenever I see a near miss like this I can't stop myself thinking of all the excuses, sorry, reasons the police might give for not taking action if it happened in this country. List so far : We are not allowed to judge distances so we don't know how close the lorry was. At this point the lorry driver is going to have to inconvenience somebody. Lorry didn't cross the white line so it was the cyclists fault for not being in the cycle lane. Lorry was established. A close pass is not an offence. Am I getting cynical in my old age? Well done to the cyclist for staying alive.
This short sample of bargains tells the cycling community that retail prices are way too expensive. As fot Giant, they seem unable to get rid of their ageing inventory.
"...the delivery lorry in his lane, attempting to overtake another lorry..." "...the lorry does not decelerate or seek to move back to its own lane..." but "... as the driver narrowly avoids him." Come on @Callum Devereux Do better.
Bath cyclist view. Whilst being a very lovely city to live in, it is at times (and places) a car infested hell-scape which is easy just to accept when you live here. I pretty much walk and cycle within the city, and only get the car out if I have to (miserable at times). With narrow roads, lots of on-street parking, no outer ring road (geography; through traffic), a river splitting the city N/S, plenty of good private/state schools and some pretty steep hills, it's a toxic mix of inconsiderate entitled drivers and rat-runs; for years the traffic problem has been in the council's 'too difficult' box. They may not get it 100% right, but the current Lib Dem council are pushing ahead with new pedestrian crossings, shutting rat-runs, implementing 20mph speed limits, scooter/bike hire scheme and installing cycle lanes; it drives the car-lobby wild and their human right to drive wherever, whenever and however is violated (I include people who live around me in this group; "how will we get around?"). The local Greens seem to just side with the noisy NIMBYs, regardless of whether it's 'green', as it probably helps their election prospects. As a cyclist, you need your wits about you and where to go to avoid toxic traffic; I've felt safer cycling in London. I think this new park route links the cycle route(s) from the centre of town up towards Weston and the hospital reasonably well; bit of uphill in the park (noting that a N route is recommended). The 'antis' point out that there are already 2 parallel cycle routes, the river path and the section of the U Bristol Rd that has dedicated cycle lanes (they're still screaming about that one). The river path feeds cyclists towards the 2-tunnels route S and the Bristol Bath cycle path; tbh, it has a lot of pedestrian traffic and is pretty narrow and bumpy (tree roots) between Windsor Bridge and Locksbrook (apparently will be upgraded). The U Bristol Rd lanes incl floating bus stops etc (wouldn't be cheap to remove), but at the W end they just stop and turf you out onto a pretty busy road. Cyclists travelling from Newbridge may just stick to the U Bristol Rd, and enjoy the respite offered by the cycle lane stretch, or could head down to the river path. I dislike the car zealots so much (one resident group has taken their self-funded LTN complaint to the High Court) that anything that sticks one up their proverbial is fine by me. If I can make an effort to get about the city by means other than a car (I even invested in a ebike to use a bike more; kills off the hill problem), then perhaps they could to.
Sorry? What country do you live in?
Range Rover ban for school runs?
I had a similar experience in Morocco. I was descending a pass on a fairly narrow road, coming out of the Atlas Mountains towards Marrakesh when far below me a slow moving bus pulled onto my side of the road to overtake another vehicle. It was immediately clear that a collision would happen if we both carried on. Fortunately I had a bit more time and space to get out of the way. We must be thankful that we live in a country where drivers have respect for cyclists.
It starts well, but says later: "A legal e-bike must have pedals and the motor is only there to provide assistance while the rider is pedalling. That motor assistance must cut out at 15.5mph (24km/h)" An EAPC that can legally be ridden on the road as a conventional pedal cycle must . . . . , perhaps.
Not gonna lie, I might have been diving into that ditch. Perhaps the camera makes it look worse than it was but I would have been ready!
@Andrewbanshee Just on a point of order, what's shown in the pictures is very much not a pump track but a set of jumps, some, prior to reduction, of a quite impressive size; a pump track is a circuit of gentle rollers that can be ridden by using a pumping motion of the rider's body rather than pedalling. One would imagine that the legal concerns of FE don't relate to the difficulty/danger of courses or jumps but their liability. If they provide a difficult course and a rider crashes on it because of excess speed or lack of ability, that's the rider's problem, but if someone pulls off a jump but is injured because the landing ramp collapses, they can be sued for not providing and maintaining a safe facility. I too am a child of the '70s but my recollections are somewhat different, I seem to remember that it was a rare class that didn't have at least one kid with a limb in plaster! Didn't seem to do us much harm, I agree, but we did get quite a lot of injuries.
4 thoughts on ““The positioning of those barriers makes zero sense”: More crash controversy hits Vuelta a España (+ director apologises for “small mishap” of Remco Evenepoel incident); Taylor Zwift takes training indoors + more on the live blog”
Wasn’t Cruel Summer a
Wasn’t Cruel Summer a Bananarama song?
Now “Look what you made me do”, “I knew you were trouble”, but I will try to “shake it off”…
…and get my coat
Chief indicator designer at
Chief indicator designer at Audi realises he’s wasted his life
I was surprised a while back
I was surprised a while back when my nieces where planning on getting Taylor Swift tickets. They outgrew their girly pop songs phase many years ago, but it turned out that Paramore are supporting her which is far more fitting to their tastes in music.
Ride celebrates Black cycling
Ride celebrates Black cycling champ Major Taylor, modern-day African-American bike advocacy
The Major Taylor Trail Keepers Celebration Ride was organized by MTTK Chicago, Friends of the Major Taylor Trail, and Major Taylor Cycling Club Chicago.
https://chi.streetsblog.org/2023/08/29/ride-celebrates-black-cycling-champ-major-taylor-modern-day-african-american-bike-advocacy