Shocking footage recorded by a spectator at the men’s under-23 race at the UCI Road World Championships yesterday shows the moment the driver of a team car swerved in front of a rider, sending him hurtling into the barriers and causing injuries including a fractured collarbone.
The driver swerved to the left to overtake a vehicle in front that had stopped by the roadside just as 22-year-old Finnish rider Joni Kanevra was passing.
The reaction of nearby spectators to the horrific crash can clearly be heard on the video, which was broadcast by Norway’s TV2 and has subsequently been posted to YouTube.
Kanerva sustained a broken collarbone, bruising to the ribs and facial cuts and was reported to be in a stable condition in hospital.
According to TV2, police are investigating the incident.
The incident comes in a week when the UCI Management Committee announced that it was reducing the number of riders in races on safety grounds.
Previously, the governing body has introduced courses for drivers wishing to form part of the race convoy and has also sought to impose stricter regulations on how vehicles move around during races in a bid to improve safety.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
22 thoughts on “Video: Rider hospitalised after team car driver swerves into him at World Championships”
Oof. Can’t see the rider or
Oof. Can’t see the rider or the car had anywhere to go when teh first car pulled in…
Hopefully the rider recovers quickly.
fenix wrote:
Car could have stopped. Rider should have been further from the car in the first place.
It appears as if the 2nd car slows slightly before moving to pass the first car, when it slows the rider movers from behind to beside the rear wing. Far too close and gets knocked off.
Why did the first car stop?
You can see a soigneur or
You can see a soigneur or rider on the other side of the road holding up a wheel.
Conjecture time: It’s possible the curve in the road obscured the driver’s view so they braked quite sharply. Perhaps the driver of the second car was distracted with the radio or somesuch hence the sudden swerve. Who knows. I think this kind of incident is inevitable unfortunately, as soon as you have riders having to mix it with the team cars on occasions during the race there is always this risk.
wycombewheeler wrote:
you can see on the far side of the road there’s a rider in a green top with a mechanical
wycombewheeler wrote:
Car could have stopped. Rider should have been further from the car in the first place.
It appears as if the 2nd car slows slightly before moving to pass the first car, when it slows the rider movers from behind to beside the rear wing. Far too close and gets knocked off.
Why did the first car stop?— fenix
First car stopped for a bike change the best way to avoid this would have been car 2 being further away from the first car, especially true if he had a rider drafting him (not exactly uncommon in pro racing so the driver should have known he was there).
Racing incident but a pretty daft and very painful one.
fenix wrote:
If the following car had left a gap to the car in front pulling up they could have stopped or slowed down. Nope, they did the usual dangerous driving shit which caused them to almost kill a competitor! The driver had plenty of options but was driving like a cunt like most do because they’re too busy fucking about with shit in the car and have no idea how to drive safely
I wouldn’t let 95% of the mongs in pro-racing service vehicles in charge of a kettle car.
About time the UCI started to clean up their act and get serious about this shit!
Yep – racing incident…team
Yep – racing incident…team cars were a bit too close but the race was moving
Best wishes and speedy recovery fellah…that was gnaar
Regardless of which car led
Regardless of which car led to collision a person could have been killed here. There’s too many vehicles in races whose drivers drive like idiots, too close to other vehicles whilst competing for road space and position. This sort of thing should lead to disqualification of the whole team including the riders to reinforce the idea that it’s a team effort, team accountability and and team responsibility. One member fecks up the whole team is responsible. That would certainly encourage the awareness of the duty of care by each person.
That was an avoidable collision caused by too much speed, not at a safe distance and probably not paying full attention. Driver should never be in control a team car again.
If this a road incident it’d
If this a road incident it’d be pitchforks and torches time. Driver was in a closed road race, he should expect cyclists at times.
How can we expect usual car
How can we expect usual car drivers to keep the roads safe when professional teams do this. Glad there is police investigation, let’s hope it is thorough and lessons can be learned to avoid any repetition.
Sadly on a bend in the road
Sadly on a bend in the road as well although you naturally don’t choose when and where to have a mechnical issue.
Opinion: First car stops. 2nd
Opinion: First car stops. 2nd car didn’t spot it as the driver was busy on the radio. When he realises there isn’t enough time for him to react/brake he swerved out without checking his mirrors for bikes.
jhsmith87 wrote:
wouldn’t have seen one anyway, check the video before impact can you see the bike? no he is behind the car, then right beside the rear wing, certainly in the blind spot.
If riders will insist on using team cars for drafting benefit then occasioanlly they will get caught out like this.
What a mess. Lifetime ban for
What a mess. Lifetime ban for the two drivers (1st car and 2nd). Bad place to stop, terrible pass of a stopped car without looking. Neither driver should be back following the races, ever.
UCI drops rider numbers, what about dropping car numbers and having more neutral support? Make teams pair up and share one car, and then have a few more mavic cars. So if you’re in a break, your shared car will be there, and if you’re in the bunch, you have to use neutral support car.
Seems harsh, but there have been way too many incidents the last ten years.
I think this is pretty
I think this is pretty realistic, I don’t know why so many supporting vehicles are allowed to be honest. It would take away the random team car ordering system too.
Equal culpability. The rider
Equal culpability. The rider was slipstreaming the second car (as the second car slows quickly you see him m ove out from behind the car, and as the car swerves to avoid the stopped car he collects the cyclist who has started to overtake. The second car should have been travelling further back, the first car should have slowed more carefully considering their environment, and the rider technically shouldn’t have been slipstreaming the car. Pretty much a racing incident. It’s unlikely the car driver was able to check his mirrors before crashing into the vehicle in front, but it would have made no difference to the outcome as the cyclist wasn’t in view in them.
Before passing judgement on the behaviour of vehicles in race caravans, try driving in one first. To say it’s a chaotic environment is an understatement.
madcarew wrote:
Had to full screen it and then slow mo the slow mo but you’re right.
Yup, it’s chaos. So reduce
Yup, it’s chaos. So reduce cars by 75%.
And why do the DS’s drive and look at a tv. Why not have a dedicated driver and the DS in the back seat with mechanic??
SNS1938 wrote:
So only 1 in every 4 teams gets a car?
@sns1938 … my thoughts
@sns1938 … my thoughts exactly.
The number of times you see the ds driving, handing stuff up, on the radio (or
Mobile) … quite scary really.
Quote:
That’s right, it’s the riders that are the problem in bike races (and not the cars, for the hard of…. etc…).
Restrict the number of bikes
Restrict the number of bikes in a bike race to improve safety – shouldn’t they restrict the number of cars (and motorbikes) in a bike race to improve safety?