Time trial bikes now too dangerous for training on public roads, says Tom Pidcock

Tom Pidcock says that it is too dangerous for professional cyclists to train on time trial bikes on public roads because of the riding position involved.

The 22 year old was speaking to BBC Sport following the crash on Monday that left his Ineos Grenadiers team mate Egan Bernal in intensive care after he crashed into the rear of a bus during a training ride in Colombia.

> Egan Bernal in intensive care following successful surgery on training crash injuries

Pidcock himself broke his collarbone last June when he crashed while training on his time trial bike in the French Pyrenees, close to Andorra, where he lives.

> Tom Pidcock suffers broken collarbone in training crash 

“Positions are getting more and more extreme and we spend more time trying to hold these positions,” the Yorkshire-born rider said. “You don't necessarily see where you're going.”

He suggested that ways could be found to adapt training to remove the risks encountered when riding on roads shared with motor traffic.

“It's evident now where it's getting quite dangerous,” he said. “I don't think we need to stop progressing, but think about how we can train in a safer way and try and mitigate these crashes.”

Ben Turner, who will race alongside Pidcock for Great Britain at Sunday’s UCU Cyclo-cross World Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and who has joined Ineos Grenadiers this season, also had a serious crash on a time trial bike while riding the Prologue of the Tour de l’Avenir last August.

“I crashed on a time trial bike, Ben crashed on a time trial bike. Egan's now crashed – it’s getting quite extreme, the position,” Pidcock said. “I think that’s the biggest causes of the crashes recently."

Bernal, winner of the 2019 Tour de France and the reigning Giro d’Italia champion, has undergone two operations for his injuries, which his team said include “fractured vertebrae, a fractured right femur, a fractured right patella, thoracic trauma, a punctured lung, and several fractured ribs due to the heavy impact.”

His father, Germán, told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo that the 25 year old’s recovery was progressing well.

“I’ve seen him a little better,” he said. I’ve exchanged a few words with him, because he speaks little. In the midst of everything, we have been calm because his health is better than in the previous days.”

Bernal’s mother, Flor Marina, posted an Instagram story showing pictures of him as a child and, referring to his ongoing recovery, said: “My happiness could be compared to what I felt 25 years ago because I felt that my son was born again.”