I noted during this years TdF a lot of road furniture which has not been called out by cyclist’s who pass these barriers. Obviously when you are in the front of the peloton no worries for the most part. But the group in the middle and worst the back of the peloton end up hitting these barriers including cyclist hitting the brakes which creates chaos as we have seen. I have never seen so many accidents in the first couple of days of the Tour. I know in the cycling groups I ride with sometimes 20-30 riders we call out debis on the roads and early braking calling out “slowing”. Shouldn’t pro cycling not just the Tour but all pro races require some form of safety measures for all riders. While I understand at the pro level they are it to win it. But as a fan of cycling I would like to see all contenders and hardcore dominique riders to finish the race in one piece. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I did notice one time this year a rider raising his hand pointing at some road furniture, but agree it is very rare, unlike in a group ride.
They’re all wearing radios. Road hazard warnings are mostly coming through those, called out by the staff in the cars who are all watching the live TV feed.
They are calling out smaller obstacles when necessary/possible, it’s just much more subtle than on a group ride full of people who don’t spend most of their lives on a bike. Corollary to that, if they were pointing out all the road imperfections that would put most of a typical group ride in the US in the hospital, they’d basically never not be pointing something out on some of the roads they’re racing on.
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