Tour de la Provence finish line crash caused by spectator; Chris Froome works with Red Bull to recover from injury; Police return stolen bike; Shimano earnings up 20%; Fernando Alonso update; Nobody cycles when it's cold outside + more on the live blog

Yes, like all these footballers and rugby players whinging about "concussion". Real men get on with it, take their lumps and die young of easily-avoidable causes. 

Calm down kiddo. How many football players do you know, that have died young, from concussion caused by heading a ball? I'm guessing its between 0 and 0.

alexuk wrote:

Calm down kiddo. How many football players do you know, that have died young, from concussion caused by heading a ball? I'm guessing its between 0 and 0.

On that basis how many people do you know personally that have died of (or with) Covid-19?

If it's 0 does that mean Covid-19 should not be taken seriously?

Lots of people who've had Covid-19 but not died have reported lingering, debilitating health issues; for some people these may be permanent. For the same reason, perhaps you don't have to die due to concussion for it to be a lifelong problem.

Perhaps you've ridden in elite/pro races so understand the risks better than the rest of us on here. But then again, if you think that crashing in a bunch sprint is the same as Sagan snagging on a spectator's coat on a cobbled climb then Fabio Jakobsen could put you straight on that.

I'd venture that the riders will have a more informed view of the risks than the likes of us.

Concussion related cognitive decline and early dementia related deaths exist.

alexuk wrote:

Calm down kiddo. How many football players do you know, that have died young, from concussion caused by heading a ball? I'm guessing its between 0 and 0.

As I understand it a disproportionately large group of the England 66 squad suffered concussive injuries, and long term brain disorders later in life such as Parkinson's, dementia, CTE etc. I would doubt very much that they are non-representative of the wider footballing fraternity, both pros and amateurs.
Granted, not died young. Some might say that may have been preferable to their later struggles....

You'd guess wrong, then. Have a read http://www.thejeffastlefoundation.co.uk/our-story

alexuk wrote:

You didn't see Sagan whining when he got taken down by a spectators coat during Roubaix.

A) It wasn't Roubaix, it was Flanders;

B) He never said he was too close, though lots of armchair critics did;

C) Inside the barriers is the cyclists' playing field, they have as much right to expect to be unimpeded by outside agencies there as a rugby player or footballer has within their field of play.

D) Heading the ball is not associated with players dying young, it's associated with long-term brain damage in later life: thus far, 5/11 of England's 1966 world cup team have died with dementia, way higher than would be staistically expected for men their age.

Back to the good old days when men were men and laughed off industrial accidents without a second thought, eh?

You guys are all full of it. I'm just saying they should not flirt with the barrier. If they take risks, they get the deck - simple. life's full of risks - you have to measure the risk and be self-accountable if you make a bad call; not blame others.

You're the ones making these stupid non-comparisons, because you're the perpetually-offended-crew. I feel bad for you guys. Just chill out, and stop pandering for other people's opinions.

alexuk wrote:

You guys are all full of it. I'm just saying they should not flirt with the barrier. If they take risks, they get the deck - simple.

Racers have a right to ride close to the barrier without being hit by dickheads leaning over it. If they flirt with the barrier and hit it themselves, fine, that's their fault. If some pillock leans over it to get a better view or take a picture and hits them, no. Now stop your silly nonsense.

alexuk wrote:

You guys are all full of it. I'm just saying they should not flirt with the barrier. If they take risks, they get the deck - simple. life's full of risks - you have to measure the risk and be self-accountable if you make a bad call; not blame others.

You're the ones making these stupid non-comparisons, because you're the perpetually-offended-crew. I feel bad for you guys. Just chill out, and stop pandering for other people's opinions.

Oh dear......

Congrats on posting quite possibly the stupidest thing ever seen on this site, then doubling down on it under extraordinary pressure from people - then adding in the 'woke' trope for good measure. Must have been really difficult to not only stick to your guns, but upgrade them in the face of all that relentless common sense. Kudos on so fully commiting to your cretinhood.

Sagan's Flanders incident was well away from the finish and he was in front so had much more freedom to pick his line (the spectator in that situation was still in the wrong though).

It's very different in the final barriered section of the finish where riders are sprinting - riders should have every expectation of using all the road between the barriers without stupid spectators hitting them. It's also very easy for riders to find themselves squeezed closer to the barriers that they might have intended - still it's 100% the fault of the spectator if them leaning over the barriers causes an accident.

Fortunately the majority of such incidents just end up with grazing etc. for the rider but it can also end up far worse which is why leaning over the barriers just before the finish line is utterly stupid and should be universally condemned (I'd even support charges being brought against the spectator although it's unlikely any would stick).

yep beebs article includes all the normal cyclist crash media tropes, the Spaniard (Alonso) collided with the car and the accident happened as a car turned left.

It only mentions the driver of the car when they start to quote the police crash report. Yet if the crash had happened on a race track, I doubt at any point would the article state Alonso had collided with another car or another car turned left into him, it would name both drivers as being the ones responsible for controlling the vehicles they were in.

I remember riding the Reading CC Hill Climb on Streatley Hill many years ago......

Nowadays I mainly pass through Streatley when off-roading on the Ridgeway.

I'm spending more time watching youtube videos of cycling than actually cycling at the moment!

HoarseMann wrote:

I'm spending more time watching youtube videos of cycling than actually cycling at the moment!

I'm spending more time watching YouTube videos than doing anything.....

I live in Medway and the council has little / no interest in cycling.  The vast majority of infra is shared paths and it is much easier to use the roads most of the time.  I will say though that I have very few worryingly close passes around Medway itself so feel the roads are pretty safe.

I cycled that way on Monday and it was blooming icy!

I thought that was the point