There were remarkable scenes at the start of Il Lombardia on Saturday morning, as the peloton staged a protest and refused to start the race for a full five minutes.
Even more remarkably, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) grabbed a microphone and delivered a speech, explaining to the race organisers and the general public that the riders were making a statement over rider safety.
Concern has been mounting after a number of safety issues occurred in Italian Classics earlier this week, including vehicles entering courses and police motorbike drivers striking riders during Tre Valli Varesine. These incidents come only weeks after Finlay Tarling died after a driver entered the course during the Volta ao Portugal.
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Suspicions that some sort of protest might be brewing were raised when Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) approached the senior race officials on the start line, a few minutes prior to the start of the race.
It would appear there was no more forewarning than that, as the race’s official master of ceremonies began the countdown from 10 seconds to the race start, only for the riders to remain unmoved when the start of the race was signalled.
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After around two minutes, in which the race speaker declared “some sort of delay”, Evenepoel was handed a microphone and addressed the gathered public in the centre of Bergamo.
“I will speak in English in the name of the whole bunch and not only the guys who are here but everyone in pro cycling,” he said.
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“We want to make this statement because there’s too many incidents happening with vehicles in the race. Unfortunately we lost the life of a brother and of a colleague of us, so we want to make this statement to show to the world that we cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured or literally dying in what we like the most to do,” he said, making reference to the death of Finlay Tarling.
“So this is why we want to spend five minutes more still to make our statement towards organisations, to the public, to everybody that is following cycling, because we cannot accept the fact that people are dying. This is why we stand still, we pay our tribute and respect to all the riders who are already involved in incidents.
“To the organisers who organise races in the future, please make sure that we can race safely, and that we can just do what we like to do without being worried about cars, motorbikes, all that stuff, coming into the course.”
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Evenepoel’s speech was met with applause from the spectators and his fellow riders.
‘We are calling for the UCI and race organisers to take accountability and act’
Tom Pidcock, whose teammates were involved in the incident at Tre Valli Varesine – and admitted he nearly stopped riding then – has been vocal about the issue of safety, and posted a statement to his Instagram to coincide with the protest. Various other riders posted the same joint statement.
“As riders, we stand united against the unnecessary risk our lives are being subjected to,” it read.
“This week alone, there were multiple incidents of vehicles on race courses. Two riders crashed when they hit a motorbike who was driving the wrong way on the race route. Luckily both escaped with cuts and bruises, it could have been so much worse.
“This summer, a life was tragically lost to exactly this kind of failure. We will not stand for this any longer. Riders race at high speed with little protection, and we depend on the UCI and race organisers to secure the roads. That responsibility is not being met.
“We are calling for the UCI and race organisers to take accountability and act. That means a serious, open conversation between riders, race organisers and the UCI resulting in concrete changes to how race routes are secured and managed.
“After five minutes, we raced as normal. We did not want to affect the race, only to show what riders can do when we stand as one. We love this sport. We respect the race organisers. We want to race hard and put on a show for our fans. However most importantly we want to come home safe to our loved ones.”
CPA president Adam Hansen shared the same statement on his Twitter account on Saturday morning.
After around five minutes of standstill, the flag was dropped for a second time and the peloton rolled out for the neutralised start.
RCS, who organise Il Lombardia but not any of the earlier Italian races where incidents have occurred, voiced their support for the protest, though without mentioning the demand for race organisers to act.
“At the start of Il Lombardia presented by Crédit Agricole, the riders came together to send an important message, stopping for five minutes to urge all road users to behave responsibly and show mutual respect, both during races and in everyday life,” a release from the organisers read. “RCS Sport fully supports this appeal, aimed at ensuring everyone’s safety.”
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