Occasionally things happen in the world of cycling the you can’t quite believe. Like this story: “31 riders kicked out of Giro Next Gen for holding onto team vehicles on Stelvio climb: Cyclists grabbed onto cars and motorcycles up the legendary ascent.”
The video is remarkable. Like people who get a drive in ultramarathons, you can find no good explanation for why anyone thought that would be acceptable in a race.
24 atletas foram desclassificados do #GiroNextGen (Giro para atletas jovens), por pegarem carona nos carros ou motos.https://t.co/V3Xuse0k4l pic.twitter.com/mGaXjT3eh7
— O País do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) June 15, 2023
I mean I’ve been tempted to get up hills on my bike by means other than pedaling and I’ve occasionally accepted a gentle push from another rider but it would never occur to me that that’s okay in a race.
And then there’s this story, According to This Race Organizer, Safety Is Too Much for the Women’s Peloton to Ask.
What happened?
“The race’s opening stage was marred with oncoming traffic and vehicles parked along the closed course, pedestrians wandering across the road, and riders navigating around traffic in the final kilometers.”
What the actual fuck..?! 🤯🤬 #TourPyrenees pic.twitter.com/MXtfg3DYrp
— Mikkel Condé v2.0 (@mrconde) June 9, 2023
What did the race director say?
“But apparently, a regard for their safety is simply too much for the women’s peloton to ask. In a stunning combination of victim-blaming and condescension, the race’s organizer Pascal Baudron was quoted as saying, “The girls have demands that are not in line with their level. They imagine that they are on the Tour de France and that all the roads must be closed, that everything must be locked down.”
That’s this week and it’s not even Friday.
Unbelievable.
