Pro cyclist calls for better race direction after 90% of the peloton crashed at Tour de Bretagne

A Belgian pro cyclist has criticised the race direction for putting the spectacle over safety after a massive crash, which saw 90 per cent of the peloton riding at 60km/hr crash out on a muddy road, with many left concussed and four taken to a hospital, before the final stage of the Tour de Bretagne.

The peloton was on a stretch of a narrow mud-covered road in the sixth stage of the UCI 2.2-rated stage race in northwestern France. As they went racing along at high-speed downhill, one of the riders near the front of the pack slid on the mud, leading to a massive pileup.

According to Circus-ReUz-Technord, a Belgian UCI Continental Team, 90 per cent of the peloton was involved in the crash. Four cyclists had to be taken to a hospital and with all the race ambulances in use, organisers decided to neutralise the race. The remaining riders went on to do a procession lap to the finish line at Plancoët.

Dernière étape du Tour de Bretagne annulée suite à cette terrible chute 😰

📹 via @leboucheranato1pic.twitter.com/m4wSuuDSjQ

— Renaud Breban (@RenaudB31) April 30, 2023

However, Siebe Roesems from the Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team said that the crash could have been avoided had the race direction been more proactive in assessing the safety of the peloton.

> "Disgrace": Pro riders rip into UCI over "unacceptable" speed bump sprint crash

Roesems took to social media to air his criticisms: “Mud on the road can happen. For sure in this region. They needed to neutralise the race before this descent, go slowly over it, and continue again. Not just 1 guy waving a flag 50m in front while we were chasing the break at 60k/h.”

The 21-year old Belgian cyclist, who finished fifth at the U23 Il Piccolo Lombardia in 2021, said that in the previous stages of the race, the peloton had a few sketchy moments “because of the weird roads in Bretagne”, but said that the organisers couldn’t do anything about that. However, they knew that the steep descent where the crash happened was covered with mud, yet took no preventive measures.

Exactly

— Siebe Roesems (@siebe_roesems) May 1, 2023

1 guy did. 50 meters before the mud. When we approached at 60k/h

— Siebe Roesems (@siebe_roesems) April 30, 2023

The race director, Christophe Fossani called the incident a “case of bad luck”, adding that it was unfortunate one of the riders at the head of the peloton who took the fall first, and that “the story would have been different if it had been one of the last riders in the peloton”.

“No, I don't regret it. It was a nice little road. I only regret that there were 10 metres of mud. Ten metres! It was a nice, dry little road,” he said.

“It’s a racing fact, we could do without it, that's for sure, but it happens in the biggest races in the world... There were choices to be made, to leave would not have been serious,” he said. “But of course, when you see what happened, it’s a shame.”

> Steep descent + all the mud in Belgium = cyclocross crash chaos

Last year, the UCI was heavily criticised after a horrendous crash, caused by a speed bump in the final few hundred metres of the Burgos sprint, brought several riders down. Riders, staff, media and fans alike pointed out the danger of the finish and the fact it broke the governing body's own rules regarding safety of race finishes.

And this year, organisers at both Paris-Nice and Milan-Sanremo were once again piled on by riders, fans and pundits, for not having proper signage to caution cyclists at high-speed, leading to crashes at both events.

At Bretagne, people on Twitter pointed out that with a surface like that, the race became was more gravel than road, with Roesems himself posting a video with the caption “When road cycling becomes cyclocross at Tour de Bretagne…”

The seventh and final stage of Tour de Bretagne resumes today at 1:45PM, taking riders from Piré-Chancé to Châteaugiron.