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Paris-Roubaix near-miss - train company want police action taken

by steviewevie
Mon, Apr 13, 2015 11:34
6

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/32284180

Quote:

The French state railway company SNCF has called for police action against cyclists in the Paris-Roubaix spring classic who crossed tracks with a safety barrier down, seconds before a high speed train arrived.

I can see their point. Can you imagine if someone had been hit by the train? If that policeman hadn't stopped them, almost certainly someone would have been hit by a train, live on TV.

I wonder if the organisers briefed the riders strictly enough about the crossings, warning them they'd be disqualified if they ignored barriers being down.

I'm also suprised that no action was taken by the organisers against those who did cross when the barriers were down.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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6 comments

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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Every year the route crosses several level crossings, it is timed so that they shouldn't interfere, however yesterday there was a strong tailwind so the group sped way ahead of schedule, the start was delayed by 10 mins to prevent this but it wasn't enough....

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vonhelmet | 9 years ago
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This has been covered in the other thread, but routes frequently cross level crossings. Last year or the year before a bunch got stopped in le Tour because they came to a level crossing as a train was going through. They try to time things so that the group isn't expected to hit the crossing at the same time as a train, and they'd actually delayed the start due to the tailwind which meant the riders would progress faster, but they went even faster than anticipated so managed to still be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Martyn_K | 9 years ago
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Riders should be DQ'd for breaking an obvious health and safety rule. If they are unable to determine the rider then then team as a whole should suffer a sanction. TV replays are used in a huge number of sports for retrospective punishment.

The UCI have a perfect chance here to show that they have grown some teeth under the leadership of Cookson, will they blow it?

On a slight tangent, who the hell planned the route with a level crossing on it? Surely there must be other crossing points that are road or rail bridged in that area. Sending the riders through a safe route would remove potential for this issue to arise.

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jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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Even if you can't identify 100% of the riders, you can certainly identify which team they were from, from the helicopter footage. They should certainly be fined. I know it's routine to flout UCI rules (such as the one about staying on the damn road!) but this is a safety issue.

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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Yeah, I think the riders need to be fined/disqualified and have a ban for the several next races.... Or have their team minus 1 rider to make that affect felt.
However I think I read that after the race the official UCI stance was that there were no comissaires nearby so can't be certain which riders were involved.... This is obv BS as there was live helicopter footage etc.
This needs to be shown that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and have heavy penalties....legal action tho, maybe not.

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Chasseur Patate | 9 years ago
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It's specifically written in the race rules that crossing with the barriers down is forbidden.

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