RIP Myngheer and Demoitie

March 29, 2016 6:10 AM

After the terrible events of March 22nd, the survival of the Belgian Classics season was a relief to many sports fans. Unfortunately, it has been a terrible week for the sport, as two Belgian cyclists have now died in separate incidents.

The accident involving Antoine Demoitie, in particular, continues a worrying trend of dangerous friction between riders and motorized vehicles. Earlier this year, the Giant-Alpecin team was decimated following a frightening crash during training. Last year, a neutral service vehicle plowed into two cyclists during the Tour of Flanders.

On a lighter note, Belgians opened their homes to an errant cyclist who got lost on the way to the finish line.

posted by selfnoise (9 comments total)

The recent spate of collisions with race vehicles is bigger - Greg Van Avermaet was hit while on a potentially race-winning attack, and in 2011 there was the incident of Flecha and Hoogerland being hit by a media vehicle. Oh and last year's Vuelta saw Peter Sagan hit by a passing motorcycle.

It's also worth noting that while these crashes have been happening (seemingly more in recent years), Demoitie's team Wanty-Gobert has quite firmly placed no blame on the motorcycle driver.

It's hard not to think of these incidents and also have the mind jump to Wouter Weylandt, who died in a crash in the 2011 Giro d'Italia. On the next day's stage, the race finish was neutralized, and his teammates crossed the line first, arm in arm, and joined by Weylandt's friend and training partner Tyler Farrar in what will always be to me a very moving tribute.
posted by entropone at 6:51 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, someone getting seriously injured or even dead from a support/TV vehicle looked more a question of time than a just possibility. And the worst of it, there's a limit to what can be done - there's a lot of variables going on at once, and not all can be controlled.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:32 AM on March 29, 2016

This piece from the site Cyclingtips explains how pro cycling has gotten to this point and what the solutions, if any, might be
posted by photoslob at 7:41 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

A 22-year-old cyclist dies of a heart attack just after turning pro and nobody's asking whether there was doping involved?
posted by indubitable at 8:06 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Rather than ramble with my way-too-long thoughts on this, I'll just say: the teams and riders are in a very difficult position re pointing fingers at UCI driver cert and supervision, race organizers, etc., because they have to be careful to not ostracize themselves from the only game in town. When you read a team tap-dancing around blame you can be virtually certain that there's more than enough blame but it can't be said in public.
posted by introp at 8:10 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sometimes people die of heart attacks, even young people in seemingly peak condition. It is a tragedy, but I too hope that it is not a sign of some new type of doping coming on the scene (historically, one of the first signs of new dope has been unexpected or anomalous health problems, particularly among younger riders from lower-level teams. I really hope there are no similar incidents this year).

With regard to the motos- interference by motos and official cars has been an increasing problem, since pretty much the Flecha-Hoogerland incident. Ironically, I think one of the causes may be the unprecedented ability we now have to televise bike races. We can now get live HD satellite feeds directly from the backs of motos, which (combined with helicopter cameras) gives us an amazing level of race coverage. Unfortunately, I think this is leading to increased pressure on camera-people and drivers to capture ever significant event in the race, at any point in the peloton or breaks. This is especially the case when there is a split, or when there are multiple moves occurring at the same time at different points on the course. I think the race organizers need to be much stricter about certifying drivers and controlling vehicles on the course, but it is my hope that the introduction of live HD feeds from the bikes themselves will help take some pressure off the motos.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:15 AM on March 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

thank you for posting this selfnoise.

I am too angry and hopeless about the UCI's apparent lack of motivation to fix things before a crisis occurs, along with the whole "but it was just an accident, work-related accidents happen all the time, cost of doing business!!" discourse I've been seeing online in the wake of this to make coherent sense so I'll just listen.
posted by lonefrontranger at 12:59 PM on March 29, 2016

It's hard not to think of these incidents and also have the mind jump to Wouter Weylandt

2011 was a tragic spring for cycling. Weylandt, of course, but Xavier Tondo died in a freak accident only a couple of weeks later, and Mauricio Soler barely escaped death a couple of weeks after that. It looks like recovery has been a very hard road for him, but seems he's doing okay--I'd leave the translate link, but I had to copy/paste to get it to work.

A 22-year-old cyclist dies of a heart attack just after turning pro and nobody's asking whether there was doping involved?

Of course people are asking questions, but it turns out to be very complicated. This Clinic thread, started only a month before Daan Myngheer's tragic death, has a great discussion of many aspects.
posted by Chuckles at 2:45 PM on March 29, 2016

Not to mention the Giant Alpecin car incident, which sent a good chunk of the team to the hospital. Cycling is always a rough sport, which is unfortunately a lot like riding a bike on roads anytime. Motor vehicles will always win.
posted by jetsetsc at 8:54 AM on March 31, 2016