Professional cyclist not setting a very good example IMO, and then the race organisers saying its ok…

“Millions of television viewers saw live this extremely serious and irresponsible action which could have been tragic,” said SNCF.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/32284180

[video]http://youtu.be/ofXHKEe1yYk[/video]

Yes, the Daily Mail will be up in arms.

TBH I see this as similar to yellow flags in F1 – the rules need to be clearly defined and taken out of the hands of the riders as competitive people in oxygen debt often make stupid decisions.

Simple rule – if there’s a railway crossing, the motorbike goes off ahead and if they determine the crossing is closed they hold out a red flag, no one passes and gets DQ’d if they do (I know technically that’s the rule but it’s not clear enough IMO).

Cant work out whats hard to understand, copper says “don’t cross”, you don’t cross.
Barriers coming down, you don’t cross.

Doesn’t take a genius to work it out.

SNCF well within their rights to prosecute.

UCI statement:
http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/uci-statement-safety-races/?utm_content=buffer06f34&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

TBH I see this as similar to yellow flags in F1 – the rules need to be clearly defined and taken out of the hands of the riders as competitive people in oxygen debt often make stupid decisions.

They are – riders breaking the rules get DQd, they did so a few years ago. Perhaps this time they decided it was too many to do.

So, can we identify any of the pros who failed to stop? Any bearing on the result should the organisers do a u-turn in the face of UCI disapproval and do some DQing?

a comprehensive report on each of them be submitted as soon as possible for review and potential action

Oh I have this one covered

The barriers went down and not everyone stopped

The UCI is taking both incidents very seriously and has requested that a comprehensive report on each of them be submitted as soon as possible for review and potential action.

They went through a closed barrier even though there was a big bloody train coming and didn’t care. Nobody was there to stop them. DQ all bellends who went through. Fine race organisers for being incompetent. End of report.

If that train had come through a moment earlier the impact would’ve been horrific…

At first I thought the excuse of they didn’t have time to stop was a bit lame, considering cars seem to manage just fine. Then I remembered, they’re roadies so probably out of their tits on performance enhancers so fair enough.

Sadly, it totally undermines the riders’ complaints about rider safety at Flanders and the Basque Country.

Barriers aside, it’s not as close as I was assuming having read the story about it… However, agreed that it’s pathetic they’re just letting them off the hook…

Must say I would have done the same as the athletes. You’ve ridden your lungs out to get into a break, you can see that there’s time to cross, although the barrier is already down. Obviously you’re going to cross! It’s a race, isn’t it? Obviously this isn’t a great situation but I’d be blaming race organisers rather than the riders.

If that train had come through a moment earlier the impact would’ve been horrific…

Just like every time you cross the road then…

It wasnt as close?

That’ll be the Policeman who stopped more crossing.

Sorry they should be DQ/prosecuted

The final three that went across had plenty of time to stop. The last one across has to push past the motorcycle so not having time to stop is absolute tosh.

Must say I would have done the same as the athletes. You’ve ridden your lungs out to get into a break, you can see that there’s time to cross, although the barrier is already down. Obviously you’re going to cross! It’s a race, isn’t it? Obviously this isn’t a great situation but I’d be blaming race organisers rather than the riders.

They neutralise the race to allow it all to come back together. Better to have a rest, then attack once it’s all joined again! No one gains an advantage from the crossing being down.

How close a call it was does not matter. Its the fact they broke a rule, and then race organisers say it is ok to do so.

‘Professionals’ should be setting an example.

Then there is the drugs scandals of the last few years, and here they are flouting the rules again.

Its just not very good for the sport.

It wasn’t the break, it was the main peloton

No warning lights or sounds at French level crossing then? No excuses for that, every one of them knew that the race would be neutralised anyway

I’ve seen worse at junctions during sportives : )

Slowpuncheur’s point about Pais Vasco is a good one – yes rider safety was compromised, but then they gladly compromise it themselves entirely needlessly. It does undermine their argument a little.

You say Pais Vasco, I say Potato…. 😉

To be fair, I expect that their argument is that if they choose to risk their health, that’s fine. If the organisers do so (by leaving road furniture in place) then that’s a different matter.

And I can get that. We choose to throw ourselves down silly things but might feel differently about it if we were forced to do it.

I see what you mean, but that argument falls down when you consider how they could potentially be risking the (mental) health of a train driver if the worst were to happen. Imagine being the French train driver who killed the current French road race champion (for the sake of argument) – not forgetting the example they set as role models whether they like it or not.

Pfft! Blimmin H&S it used to be every man for himself in the old days & if you got across the commissaires wouldn’t have slowed you down to wait for the peleton. It’s your own fault for not being quick enough to get there & beat the train

It’s traditional

I wonder what the event insurance companies view is on this! Especially if the rider are not DQ or disqualified to discourage this in the future.

I’m amazed that relatively significant events like the PR with live telly watched by millions don’t have the trains stop/slow for them to keep the route open.

Problem is they don’t know when the riders will cross the tracks as the race times can vary so much depending on tactics, conditions, etc.

race judges didn’t see who’d gone through barriers so couldn’t penalise them at the time so race was neutralised instead.
the route crosses the train track 5 times so they couldn’t really ask the trains to stop.
what is pitiful is that this is a main story on the BBC website when the event itself was not.
nothing bad happened. move on.

Apparently the warning lights started less than 10 seconds before the front of the peloton got there, and arguably the front riders slamming on their brakes and causing a pileup is not the right thing to do. But then neither is going around closed barriers.

The Eurosport commentators called it right; too many to DQ. I think they should all be DQ’d though.

One day its all going to go horribly wrong! This isn’t the first time in PR or other races,particularly the one day classics. The organisers need to get a grip, spell out the rules and the arrangements for dealing with crossing closures – the break gets held at its gap, the rest are neutralised until the peloton is back together. SNCF are quite within their rights to go apeshit. Imagine Network Rails response.

Oh and rural crossings in France have at least bells as a warning before the barriers come down.

Sncf have pressed charges against X, police will have to investigate.

They neutralise the race to allow it all to come back together.

Sounds nice but it is still a hard ride to get back on the slightly slowed peleton and the group out front were pulling out time on the main bunch.

I can see it both ways but for me there will always be people who bend whatever rules you set so it is up to the race organisers to have clear rules and then enforce them.

Thing is this isn’t a bending of the rules – like (for example) ducking under a lowering barrier at a LC, this was blatant flouting of the rules!

Sounds nice but it is still a hard ride to get back on the slightly slowed peleton and the group out front were pulling out time on the main bunch.

The UCI has rules about road blockages, level crossing etc. If the break has more than 30″ and it gets stopped by a level crossing, it is then allowed to restart until it has gained back it’s time, then the bunch is started.

If the break gets through then the bunch get held up, that’s tough shit for the bunch.

The problem was here that the barriers came down literally ON the bunch. 20″ earlier – no problem they’d all have stopped. 20″ later – no problems, they’d all have got through.

Massively unfortunate timing. The only thing you can do is station the police further up the road every time there’s a level crossing. Also, that level crossing only had half barriers, if it had been full ones to actually block the road then again, no problem.

I’d have probably gone through the barrier.
It’s a race, and I’m not stopping if the bloke in front isn’t.
I’m not claiming it’s right though.