Peter Sagan was forced to take a slight detour from the time trial course on today’s closing stage of the Italian race Tirreno-Adriatico today as a person walking their DOG wandered across the course.
The dog-walker seemed to be oblivious to the Bora-Hansgrohe rider, dressed in red as leader of the points classification, bearing down on him as he ambled across a zebra crossing.
Luckily Sagan was a bit more alert, using gaps in the high kerb between the carriageway and bike path in the Adriatic resort of San Benedetto del Tronto avoid the pedestrian, although he did give a rather hard glare back over his shoulder after he had passed them.
Peter #Sagan sarà leggermente arrabbiato…#EurosportCICLISMO #Tirreno pic.twitter.com/o6VdcHzt13
— Eurosport IT (@Eurosport_IT) March 14, 2017
It’s the second time in a fortnight Sagan has been filmed going slightly off-piste, with reports a fortnight ago that he might face a fine after being filmed on the pavement alongside a cobbled section at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
>Sagan, van Avermaet and Vanmarcke could be fined for pavement cycling at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
We’d expect the commissaires to be a bit more understanding of today’s incident.
Sagan finished today’s race with the red points jersey, and mentioned the incident concerning the dog afterwards on Twitter.
I love dogs but please respect the safety of the riders! @TirrenAdriatico pic.twitter.com/RVzH7ECnQj
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) March 14, 2017
21 thoughts on “Video: Peter Sagan forced off Tirreno time trial course – as person walks DOG across it”
Lucky the mutt wasn’t on one
Lucky the mutt wasn’t on one of the extending trip-wires…
easier to pass behind
easier to pass behind pedestrian? as far as I coukd see there was no indication the zebra wasn’t in usual operation. Is everyone expected to know there is a race on?
wycombewheeler wrote:
Well, yes. Have you ever been to a proper bike race? This was clearly a closed road event. Which means cars passing by every couple of minutes asking spectators to make room and hundreds of people lining the roads, particularly on a circuit like this.
Maybe the race needed a little more of a security presence, sure, but the pedestrian was clearly glued to her phone and oblivious to the race and all the spectators lined up to watch (who, in my experience, were most likely shouting at her to watch out). This kind of thing almost never happens because almost everyone looks around before crossing a road regardless of the lights.
Umm.
Carton wrote:
Well, yes. Have you ever been to a proper bike race? This was clearly a closed road event. Which means cars passing by every couple of minutes asking spectators to make room and hundreds of people lining the roads, particularly on a circuit like this.
Maybe the race needed a little more of a security presence, sure, but the pedestrian was clearly glued to her phone and oblivious to the race and all the spectators lined up to watch (who, in my experience, were most likely shouting at her to watch out). This kind of thing almost never happens because almost everyone looks around before crossing a road regardless of the lights. — wycombewheeler
What barriers? What crowd? Big empty road, it looks like…
brooksby wrote:
Is there something I wrote in invisible ink that you guys are seeing? Because I don’t remember using it since I was ten. And I don’t remember it working on lcd screens, much less through lcd screens onto other devices via the internet.
In any case, there are clearly plenty of spectators, you can see the start of a group of five to ten at the corner of that still you posted, not 10 yards away from the woman. And many more ahead and throughout the course as was evidenced in the race footage. They were unlikely to be standing in the hot concrete on a hot Italian spring day, but under the scattered trees that lined the route. I can pretty much guarantee that, as in any race I’ve been in where people wander on the road as riders are about to pass, they were shouting at her to watch out. Even the dog, as was pointed out, looked pretty aware of the situation.
The only time that I’m aware of where they line more than say, 3-5km with barriers is the finish of the Tour. It’s just not a logistically feasible proposition. The rest of the time it’s just cops and commissaires doing the rounds and asking people to take care and move over. Which works fine 99.99999% of the time. Because most people aren’t automatons unable to percieve nuance. Pretty much everyone understands that the world is a messy place, that rules depend on context and in particular that when in public spaces being reasonably alert is your civil duty (which you are uniquely capable of providing and solely responsible for breaching).
Carton wrote:
You are of course right; in fact, on reflection, I’m surprised at how they were able to cross to the road through that sea of spectators you mention.
wycombewheeler wrote:
If you watch the video on the Grauniad, you’ll hear the team car/TV moto sounding their horn, which causes the pedestrian to speed up. If they’d kept walking slowly, Sagan would have passed safely in front of them. Might have got hit by the moto tho! If the pedestrian had been walking quickly to start with, I think Sagan would have opted to go behind them.
It was mainly unfortunate timing I think.
I can’t see this any other
I can’t see this any other way than Peter Sagan nearly runs over pedestrian crossing the road. Why would the pedestrian have any cause think anything other than it’s a normal crossing?
As for this ingnorant statement by the hackworthy author “The dog-walker seemed to be oblivious to the Bora-Hansgrohe rider, dressed in red as leader of the points classification, bearing down on him as he ambled across a zebra crossing.” Insert Car and Cyclist into this statement and you’ve got the typical click baiting tripe suitable for publication into the Daily Mail.
SingleSpeed wrote:
Insert ‘not sure if serious’ gif.
Let’s take this up a level. Closed road tarmac rally stage. Driver expected to stop as an errant ‘pedestrian’ wanders across the crossing? It’s ok though because it’s a bike and pedestrians don’t give a shit about walking in front of bikes.
If bike racing comes to town you can’t just expect to be ambling about in the road, end of.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
San Benedetto del Tronto is an Adriatic seaside town full of old people. Think Eastbourne but warmer.
This kind of thing is going to happen if there are no barriers or marshals – which there weren’t. This is down to the race organisers, not the dog owner.
SingleSpeed wrote:
Guessing you’re the kind of person whose food gets the special sauce treatment in restaurants when you patronise the waiting staff.
Or are you only that rude when you’re safely hiding behind a keyboard and online pseudonym?
Just curious.
Should’ve bunny hopped it
Should’ve bunny hopped it
craigp wrote:
Doggy-hopped, surely?
Headline: Cyclist nearly runs
Headline: Cyclist nearly runs over a pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing, whilst cyclist plainly not taking notice or care.
Cyclist then tweets about needing someone to keep him safe, as in the absence of a brain he can’t possibly be expected to take responsibility for himself.
CAnstead wrote:
It was a TT in a World Tour race you clown
Jackson wrote:
Look at the video, it’s a public highway with no barriers, you … juggler.. or something. Not entirely sure where this circus performance theme has come from, but happy to contribute.
All a bit ruff if you ask me.
All a bit ruff if you ask me.
I fail to understand how this
I fail to understand how this could have happened. He was wearing a helmet, after all.
Bad form on the part of the
Bad form on the part of the pedestrian.
This is Sagan, people. Surely he has some UN-issued World Pass to Ride Wherever The Fuck He Wants, Whenever The Fuck He Wants, be it wheelieing over the top of Uluru or bunny hopping on the White House lawn first thing on Christmas Day.
Correct ped/dog procedure: get off the road and kneel before the presence of cycling royalty. I trust they’ll be allowed to remedy this faux pas.
pretty sure the dog noticed
pretty sure the dog noticed and is trying to pull the owner back!
I love this new crossing revolution!