Son of cyclist killed at Duo Normand "to raise holy hell" about race safety

I watched the Mens road race at Rio and heard the dire predictions of Chris Boardman and was sickened by the inevitable crashes in both the Mens and Womens races. When I heard of the Paracyclist I immediately though of the gullies on the road and Boardman and van Vlueten.

and lets not forget this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlAKjWcBezA

If the courses are dangerous get them changed, if the support drivers are in the wrong place, train them, monitor them, replace them.

Augsburg your post might be dressed up as sensibleness but it is nothing but victim blaming. This is not mountain biking; road rash and a broken collar bone are to be expected, a touch of wheels will happen regardless of crash barriers, but no 'safety equipment' is going to protect a racer when going head first into a vehicle that should not have been there. 

I think that it is somewhat of an overreaction to go as far as Augs suggests above with compulsory safety clothing etc, but there is clearly some easy wins available. The Olympics crashes (don't forget the poor paracyclist that died after a similar crash) cause me trouble though. Cycling is a sport that is very much about balancing risk and reward, especially when it comes to technical riding. The consequences in this course were way too high with those horrible curbs, but I don't want to get to the point where they don't put in a difficult downhill due to the risk (rather they mitigate the consequences - catch netting, padding etc - the obvious problem being it's very expensive to make a 200km race stage inert in terms of nasty things you could hit).

As to the case in hand in the article, I can't comment on the last 6 years since my father died, but in the 10 years leading up to that he drove the support vehicle for the local cycling club entry for the Duo Normande each year. He had no training specially to do this and was not offered any. There may have been a safety briefing but it wasn't significant enough for him to mention it to me so essentially there's no difference to your average license holder other than you happen to know someone who's riding the race (and therefore will probably be more aware of cyclist generally).

I can easily imagine that a similarly qualified driver following the other team getting overly excited and concentrating more on his riders and their progress than things going on in front of the car.

I want to extend my support and condolences to the Bashford family.  I hope the cycling community can begin to see and hear the cause for rider safety in races.  I know it will be a long row to hoe, before cyclists realize how out of step they are with the rest of the sporting world.  We are a community that can still not figure out how to involve women in road racing, let alone safety. 

Just a few weeks ago we witnessed, in horror, the crash at the Rio Olympics of racer Annemiek van Vlueten.  Today, her "recovery" is heralded as a miracle.  Baloney!  Just like Mr. Bashford's death, I see Ms van Vleten's return to racing as a tragedy.  

I support the Bashford family in bringing that message to the cycling community.  I sincerely wish race officials and sponsors would begin to take rider safety more seriously.  I can only say it is telling that the teams and sponsors do not show concern for rider safety.  That they consider racers so expendable, and they care more about taking advantage of the public 's interest in the macabre for their own financial gain.

The racers, the cyclists, will never speak for themselves.  They are the product of an old, out-of-date culture valueing bravery and toughness over common sense.  The vast majority of modern sports have embraced safety.  Auto racing, boat racing, even American football (albeit after lawsuits rang up totaling a billion U.S. dollars).  Just watch the movie Concussion, if you want a lesson in sports culture that is long overdue for change.  

Cycling is one of the few, one of the last, to cling to a sporting climate ignoring obvious safety measures.  It does not take Einstein to come up with a dozen ideas to improve safety.  Protective riding gear (that everyone must wear), improved crash barriers at obvious problem areas.  Better driving rules, certification and training for the drivers of race motorcycles and team cars.  

Too many in bike racing figure "crashes are part of the race".  It has always been a weak argument to say "well, it is how we've always done it".    Where would the world be if there was no change, that we did not try to make things better?  It is time.