Spare a thought for Jasper Stuyven and Wout van Aert this morning. All those months of work, sacrifice, altitude camps, dieting, training, efforts, racing and more, all to peak perfectly for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. All snatched away with one touch of wheels, the entire classics season turned on its head in a couple of seconds.
For Van Aert, it was a season planned around this week. No Strade Bianche, no Milan-San Remo, no Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico, less form for the winter cyclocross — all designed for the final weekend in March and the first in April. For Stuyven, the journey has arguably been even longer, the Belgian writing on Instagram that after "two years of suffering in the classics" he was finally back to "my best level ever" (and that's from a man who's won San Remo)...
The pair were taken to the same hospital in Ronse and then operated on in Herentals last night, both back-to-back surgeries for a broken collarbone.
"Immediately after him it will be my turn. Maybe tomorrow [Thursday] morning we can have a coffee together on our sick bed..." Stuyven told Het Laatste Nieuws. "Fuck, I saw it happening in front of me, but I couldn't move. Wout tapped the rear wheel of a teammate, was thrown off balance and collided with my teammate Alex Kirsch. The two fell and since I was just behind Kirsch, there was no way to dodge. I went over my bike with my head and took a serious tumble ending up on my left shoulder.
"Am I angry? It is typical that it happened in the run-up to the Kanarieberg. One of the most dangerous moments in the race. It is not without reason that they have taken that out of the Tour [of Flanders] this year, but not yet for Dwars door Vlaanderen. Maybe now they will avoid it in the future. However, you cannot blame the organisation, it is the riders who want to position themselves as best as possible in such a large group, which made it dangerous."
Stuyven's teammate Mads Pedersen was also brought down in the high-speed crash, the Dane at least able to remount and continue riding, before abandoning a short while later. Pedersen also updated fans on Instagram, thanking his mechanic for an "absolutely amazing job" to bring his "beautiful bike back to life" and said he'd do "my absolute best to be back for Sunday".
Wout van Aert's injuries have been confirmed, Visma-Lease a Bike saying he suffered a broken sternum, broken collarbone and several broken ribs, adding that "it is unclear when Wout will be able to get back on his bike" and "the next few weeks will be all about his recovery".
"He will, therefore, miss the spring classics," the team said. "His participation in the Giro d'Italia is still uncertain. We will make a decision in the coming weeks based on his recovery. On behalf of Wout, we thank everyone for their support. He now hopes to continue his recovery in peace."
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
Belgian classics rider Arnaud De Lie has been diagnosed with Lyme disease following a disrupted start to the season. Lotto Dstny had this week said that De Lie would "take some time to reset and build up towards the second part of the season" after illness and a crash at Le Samyn which ultimately caused him to abandon Paris-Nice too.
The team revealed that after a further check-up it was discovered that he has Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that can be spread to humans by infected ticks.
"It's possibly, as a Lyme diagnosis is never 100% conclusive, the reason why De Lie couldn't perform on a high level the past races," the team suggested. "Treatment with antibiotics has been started".
After Thomas De Gendt's UAE Tour crash, a sighting of a similar detached tyre and insert at Strade Bianche, comments from Adam Hansen about the CPA riders' union wanting the design banned to avoid potential future disaster, the UCI has now released another statement...
Following its statement on recent incidents involving the use of hookless rims with tubeless tyres, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is today in a position to issue its first guidelines on the subject for the short, medium, and long term.
The UCI's initial statement came in light of several incidents that have occurred in professional road cycling over the last two years at events on the UCI International Calendar, including this year at two UCI WorldTour events – the UAE Tour and the Strade Bianche (ITA) –, as well as concerns expressed by road cycling stakeholders about rider safety.
In the short term, the UCI reminds teams and riders of the requirement set out in article 1.3.018 of the UCI Regulations, which imposes compliance with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards 5775-2:2021 and 5775-1:2023 in cycling competitions. These standards provide a framework for the compatibility of tyre and rim widths on bicycles. The UCI notes that the norms defined in these ISO standards have not always been respected and does not rule out the possibility that this may have been a contributing factor in some of the incidents encountered.
The UCI also recognises that compliance with the ISO standards by teams and riders is made more difficult by the fact that manufacturers base their recommendations for compatibility between tyres and rims on the recommendations provided by the European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation (ETRTO), which have not always been aligned with ISO standards.
Further information on articles 1.3.018 and 1.3.002 of the UCI Regulations, which both refer to the ISO standards mentioned, is available in the UCI Technical Regulations Clarification Guide.
In the medium term, the UCI has taken the decision to mandate SafeR – the newly formed entity dedicated to safety that brings together all stakeholders of professional road cycling – to work with all parties concerned, including teams, riders and the cycling industry, to explore potential improvements and clarifications regarding the use of hookless rims with tubeless tyres that would be relevant to incorporate into the UCI Regulations. SafeR will provide their recommendations, to be considered for application for the 2025 season, in a report with the aim of continuously improving rider safety. In particular, teams, riders and Commissaires are asked to report any incident involving hookless rims with tubeless tyres that may occur and to ensure that the circumstances of the incident can be analysed in detail.
In the longer term, the UCI will carry out an in-depth analysis of the appropriateness of the current requirements for the use of different types of equipment in competition, in particular wheels, to ensure that these requirements guarantee the safety of riders, are adapted to professional cycling, and do not rely exclusively or for the most part on the diligence and internal processes of manufacturers.
Me on my way to Belgium to donate a collarbone and several of my ribs to Wout Van Aert pic.twitter.com/f1xTxuixlz
— Regan Kirsch (@theeReganKirsch) March 27, 2024
We had to check the date for a second here...
Yep, that's a beef stew and frites (stoofvlees-friet for the Belgians) energy gel. It's a limited edition number that can be claimed (one per rider) by filling out a form on the Cycling in Flanders website and popping along to the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde to claim your... prize?! I think I'd rather bonk, to be honest...
When two hire bikes love each other very much...
Spring is officially here and the Lime bikes have begun their mating rituals! pic.twitter.com/oohTYeu9rJ
— Travis and Sigrid (@sigirides) March 28, 2024
The classics sure know how to pack plenty of drama and incident into an afternoon's racing...
This is what happened in the men's race ahead to cause the neutralisation and shortening of the women's Dwars Door Vlaanderen#DDV24#DDVwomenpic.twitter.com/SqBl6nT3On
— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) March 27, 2024
Ryan mentioned this on yesterday's live blog, a few more details now emerging about the collision which saw the women's race, eventually won by Marianne Vos, paused for 15 minutes. A medical car ended up in a ditch and a Soudal Quick-Step car badly damaged after their drivers had collided in the convoy ahead of the race.
The fire service was required to get the medical car's doctor out of the vehicle in the ditch, with the individual then taken to hospital in Ronse (the same facility where Jasper Stuyven and Wout van Aert were initially treated too).
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
Tiesj Benoot told the TV cameras he blames himself for the crash that ended Wout van Aert's classics season, saying he feels "really shit about it".
"Our plan was to go on the Kanarieberg and Tim van Dijke was doing a great lead-out towards the climb," he explained. "When Tim had finished leading us out, Wout shouted at me to accelerate, which I did. But I think he touched my back wheel when I stood up to accelerate. I feel really shit about it, actually.
"Wout shouted at me 'Go Tiesj,' and I stood up to accelerate again towards that corner, and I think he hit my rear wheel there. That was the feeling I had. It happened so quickly I'm not entirely sure.
"We were together for the last seven weeks, I shared a room with him in Tenerife for three weeks. He's a good friend, I'm really sorry for him. I was thinking of him after the crash. I had Wout on my mind for the rest of the race."
Things I didn't expect to read today: Visma-Lease a Bike's new classics star Matteo Jorgenson taking to social media to defend his race-winning ride at Dwars door Vlaanderen following criticism from some about his decision not to stop after Wout van Aert's crash.
Strange, right? For a team like Visma-Lease a Bike (whose strength and classics success has come largely from having multiple strong riders capable of winning races, giving them numerous cards to play) the idea that just because Van Aert is the best, all others should wait to see him into the ambulance seems... bizarre? I could think of some other adjectives too... but here we are...
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
The American, seeking to be the first male US rider to win the Tour of Flanders and only the second ever after Coryn Labecki's 2017 success, took to social media to address the haters (who'd presumably had a few too many glasses of Kwaremont by the time they took to their keyboards)...
"So about yesterday… I really want to wish everyone that went down the best in their individual recoveries, however long and arduous they may be . It was a big relief to get news after the finish that no one was in critical condition. Having seen the crash first-hand I imagined a far worse outcome. To respond to some of the criticism I got for continuing to race afterwards:
"After a few seconds of shock having barely escaped myself, I tried as hard as I could to bring myself out of it. As we got onto the foot of the Kanarieberg I felt some responsibility to honour what has gone into this. The sheer man-hours, planning, late nights and early mornings put in by our staff and of course all the teammates that had spent 150km dying in the wind to bring us there in the front… Why would I let all of that go to waste? We already lost our leader, our strongest rider and the heart of our classics team, should we then just throw in the towel?
"I am proud of how Tiesj Bennot and I continued to fight and I hope we honoured the display that Wout van Aert was planning to put on. Anyway, see you all Sunday where all of Visma-Lease a Bike will try to do him proud."
Many will feel a response was not necessary, the complaints slammed as "nonsense" and "mind-boggling" by several of the fans who replied to his post.
Remember the scenes the last time Dom Whiting took his Drum & Bass On The Bike ride to Bristol?
> Cyclists take over Bristol for "mind-blowing" Drum & Bass On The Bike
Thousands of cyclists are expected to take part in Dom's latest event, starting at the Lloyds Amphitheatre by the harbourside at 2pm on Sunday before following a similar route to previous events, up to Brandon Hill, Park Street, the Bearpit, Stokes Croft, Cabot Circus, Castle Park and finishing back by the harbourside.
Jack spoke to Dom ahead of his London event last summer, the DJ telling road.cc it all started during lockdown due to "pure boredom".
"The whole thing was a complete accident in that I didn't expect it to evolve the way it has. This has just become something amazing really, and I think the power of it has kind of overtaken any thoughts of an end goal."
Speaking about his last Bristol event, Dom said it had been especially "memorable".
"Everyone was getting involved, even the cars. That old stigma of cars vs bikes, it was totally non-existent because everyone's involved," he said.
We sent Simon to the London ride to get the first-hand raving experience...
> Joining Dom Whiting for a Drum & Bass On The Bike ride – a glorious afternoon in every sense