Ineos Grenadiers and other teams refuse to continue French stage race after motorist almost drives into cyclists at roundabout – day after another driver strayed onto course and caused crash

The remainder of this year’s Étoile de Bessèges stage race has been thrown into doubt after the Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, and several other teams all refused to race and headed back to their team buses during stage three on Friday afternoon – following yet another near miss with a member of the public who drove onto the course and almost hit the peloton at a roundabout.

12km into today’s third stage of the French race, initially scheduled to be a 163km loop around Bessèges, a seemingly unsuspecting motorist made their way onto the circuit, driving in the opposite direction to the race, and almost collided with the bunch, prompting the riders to stop in protest at the clear lack of safety measures in place at the event.

Reports from the race also suggest that a second driver also found themselves on the route during the first 12km of today’s stage, before the incident at the roundabout led to the mass stoppage and withdrawals.

> Oblivious motorist forced to reverse off road after driving towards charging pro peloton at Étoile de Bessèges stage race, causing crash and injuring rider

This latest safety issue comes a day after another motorist strayed onto the route and drove towards the bunch, before rapidly reversing off the road, causing a crash in the process, which led Red Bull-Bora’s Maxim van Gils to abandon due to his injuries.

It also comes two days after the riders were forced to avoid a lorry in the road on the opening stage.

Following today’s near miss, the peloton immediately stopped for what turned out to be an hour and a half in protest.

Three representatives of the riders’ union, the CPA, spent that time discussing the issue with the race organisers, with two of the representatives reportedly unwilling to carry on racing.

However, an agreement of sorts was eventually reached with the organisers to continue, albeit without the planned finishing lap around Bessèges, cutting the stage distance by 27km.

Nevertheless, a number of teams were reportedly unhappy with the decision to continue and headed back to their team buses at the finish, withdrawing from the race.

These teams form bulk of the race’s WorldTour representation, including race leader Paul Magnier’s Soudal-Quick Step squad, the Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Van Gils’ Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, Lotto, Decathlon-AG2R, Uno X-Mobility, and EF Education-EasyPost.

Many of the French teams, however, continued racing, leaving around 60 riders in the depleted bunch.

In a statement posted on social media, EF said: “Our team, along with several others, has decided to retire from the Étoile de Bessèges due to safety concerns, including the presence of moving vehicles on the race course. The safety of our riders and staff is our top priority.”

Meanwhile, Lidl-Trek posted: “Following another incident early in today’s stage involving a vehicle, our riders have decided not to continue and have retired from the stage. The safety of our riders is paramount and we felt not enough was being done.”

“The safety of our riders and staff is of paramount importance,” added the Ineos Grenadiers. “Following multiple incidents of public vehicles entering the race course our riders, together with other teams, have decided not to complete today’s stage.”

Friday’s mass withdrawal from the 2.1-ranked stage race, a traditional early season tune-up event in the south of France, follows a wave of criticism and accusations levelled at the Étoile de Bessèges organisers by team staff, who argued that not enough was being done to secure the course and protest the riders.

With around 17km to go on yesterday’s second stage, into Marguerittes, a Mini driver appeared to pull out onto the course after the breakaway passed, around 50 seconds ahead of the peloton, and was driving in the opposite direction to the race.

The driver could be seen on the television footage hurriedly reversing off the road, forcing the riders to slow down before ducking to the right to make their way around the motorist.

However, during this jostling, a touch of wheels prompted a crash on the right-hand side of the peloton, bringing down several riders, including South African champion Ryan Gibbons, eventual fourth-place finisher Jordi Meeus, and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Maxim Van Gils, who it was later confirmed quit the race due to the injuries he sustained in the crash and was taken to hospital.

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Speaking to Daniel Benson after the stage, Van Gils’ sports director at Red Bull-Bora, a clearly disgruntled Heinrich Haussler, said: “I’m new in the business as a sports director. I’ve only been a director for one year, but at the end of the day, the UCI needs to ask, ‘Do these guys deserve to put on a race?’”

Asked whether the race was safe and deserved to go ahead, the Australian replied: “They need to really look into it, and in my eyes, definitely not. It’s a shame if a race is taken away, but does something bad have to happen first before people actually react?

“There have been way too many red flags already, so I don’t know why things don’t get done.”

According to Ineos DS Zak Dempster, who also spoke to Benson on Friday following his team’s withdrawal, several teams agreed last night that they would quit the race if any further incidents took place.

“There was a majority vote from the riders to not continue,” Dempster said after the mass exodus. “I’m not sure what the situation is now, to be totally honest. The thing was that another car came out, the same as yesterday, so let’s not mix it with weather and that kind of thing. The guys were up for racing.

“We came here to race but if they cannot… in road cycling there are no guarantees for safety but if the organisers are saying that they’ve only got 10 police motorbikes, and we realise it’s not perfect, but it’s one thing being not perfect… then you’re risking the safety of the riders.

“We don’t need another incident like yesterday, and we’d never put our riders in harm's way, and it wasn’t good enough.

“If the race can’t close the parcours for 150km, then do a circuit. Road cycling is not a safe sport, that’s the reality of it, but we need to do better. I’ve got a three-year-old daughter, and I’m not sure that I’d want her carrying on with the race today, that’s for sure.

“At a certain point, it’s life and death, so I’ll always back the riders, so if they’re saying that cars are coming onto the course.

“It’s one thing if you’re riding at 30kph in training, and it’s another thing if you’re racing on what should be closed roads. The footage we saw yesterday wasn’t even halfway to being okay, and you need to react to that type of thing.”

And writing on X/Twitter on Friday afternoon, EF boss Jonathan Vaughters said: “Happy to see the riders took the responsibility of leaving Étoile de Bessèges today over public traffic blatantly on the race course, unimpeded.

“If others cannot manage to safeguard the riders, I’m happy to see the riders will take action.”

The decision by so many teams to leave the Étoile de Bessèges due to concerns about cars on the course echoes the chaos that surrounded the CIC-Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées in 2023, which the UCI eventually brought to a halt in the wake of two days of protests from a peloton concerned for its safety.

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On the first stage into Lourdes, won in a sprint by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, members of the public were seen driving on the course, metres away from the riders at times, and parked cars and trucks littered the final kilometres while spectators wandered onto the roads.

A day later, the second stage to the Hautacam was then neutralised to the foot of the iconic summit finish after the peloton complained of race motorbike riders creating hazardous conditions.

“Considering the safety risks involved, we firmly believe that a bike race is not worth endangering the lives of the female cyclists,” Adam Hansen, the head of the riders’ union the CPA, said – prompting race director Pascal Brudon to unwisely brand the decision “the whims of spoiled children”, a comment for which he later apologised.