As if hazardous street furniture, fans getting in the way on climbs, and the occassional badly-driven car weren't all enough to contend with, these riders at the Vuelta a Burgos had a TV helicopter get a bit too low.

Video: What happens when a TV helicopter gets a bit too close to a bike race?
First Published: Aug 13, 2013

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John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day’s work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site’s main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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I have just sent off for a helmet mounted mirror, partly because an average week’s riding includes town centre roads (food shopping) and the A603, a single carriageway road with 50mph traffic including eighteen ton lorries. If anyone is seriously interested I will post a description of how useful it is. I wrote the above in answer to to two people's comments, but re-post it here in case it is not accessible for everyone else.
I have just sent off for a helmet mounted mirror, partly because an average week's riding includes town centre roads (food shopping) and the A603, a single carriageway road with 50mph traffic including eighteen ton lorries. A few years ago my right shoulder side tendon (supraspinatus) was totally torn, too close to the shoulder for repair surgery. I (slowly) learned to use all the other muscles around the shoulder to compensate... I hope you too will be able to adapt. If you are interested I will post a description of how useful the mirror is.
I have just sent off for a helmet mounted mirror, partly because an average week's riding includes town centre roads (food shopping) and the A603, a single carriageway road with 50mph traffic including eighteen ton lorries. If anyone is seriously interested I will post a description of how useful it is.
People do ridicule cyclists for wearing helmets though They certainly do! I remember being mocked with shouted abuse for wearing a helmet (I had been after one ever since I saw Americans wearing Bell helmets some time before) on Maryhill Road in Glasgow in 1976. Somebody brought one back for me after a holiday in the USA.
You are correct, I was commenting on what the author said, not responding to Mr. Blackbird. Using the threaded view clearly shows replies versus separate comments. We are all entitled to our opinions, which is all I was giving in response to the article. I was also indeed only commenting on the Grenadier vehicles and the “wannabe Land Rover” term and not on the company or Jim Ratcliffe personally.
"My father undertook post mortems and attended coronors inquests until his retirement and early death. He saw the riders who died in accidents. He built up decades of observed experience. He made us wear a helmet." That is the very definition of observation bias. Did he also do post mortems on people who had died from obesity and diabetes because they didn't ride a bike? If so, he would have seen massively more of them than cyclists.
Don't know about you but when I've been hit by a motor vehicle I've fallen off my bike, and wearing a helmet intended to protect me if I fall off has mitigated my injuries.
They do exist, but they're expensive and they look something like this:- https://www.freepik.com/free-ai-image/war-zone-with-tank_67396907.htm
What a marvelously apposite name for someone taking on helmet-related cases.
700, 1000 and 1400 lumen flash modes. How to annoy the feck out of the International Space Station. The steady beams have only been increased to 650, 950 and 1350 lumens, respectively. Maybe increased run time would have been better.




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11 thoughts on “Video: What happens when a TV helicopter gets a bit too close to a bike race?”
Helicopter incident at 44.25
Helicopter incident at 44.25 onwards.
it still looked quite high up
it still looked quite high up the draught must bee amazing to blow them off course.
billyman wrote:it still
It’s because the pilot had to change the pitch of the rotor and put more of an angle of attack into the blades to stop and hover. And, since he was right over the cyclists at the time, whoomp, there they go!
Just thought you might like to know…. :B
I’m sure it’s not the first
I’m sure it’s not the first time they’ve been blown off by someone with a big chopper.
ROFL
ROFL
Hahahaha! Awesome
Hahahaha! Awesome
Didn’t Moser use a helicopter
Didn’t Moser use a helicopter to win the Giro 😕
LOL, what an anticlimax of a
LOL, what an anticlimax of a finish.
Anything to win! Hover
Anything to win! Hover helicopters over your competition!
I don’t want to be picky,
I don’t want to be picky, but: The heli covering the race is a Eurocopter and the one being “apprehended” is a Robinson…Two completely different choppers. A Robinson couldn’t cut my grass if it tried….the Eurocopter is gas-turbine and a far more powerful. Just saying. B-)
No fair: a Robinson crashing
No fair: a Robinson crashing and burning would do a fine job of your grass!