Tour Feminin des Pyrenees abandoned

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Riders complained about many roads not being closed to traffic and a lack of marshals for the three-day race in south-west France.
Racing conditions were "highly dangerous", said Adam Hansen, the president of riders' union CPA.
He said the "excessive presence" of cars on the road had created a "significant panic" among racers.
Multiple teams pulled out before Sunday's final stage and the governing body released a statement shortly after.
"To maintain the safety of the riders, the decision has been taken to stop the Tour des Pyrenees," the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) said.
"After consulting with key stakeholders of the event, including the CPA, teams, commissaires and the organising committee, today's stage will not go ahead."
Riders stopped racing during the second stage on Saturday to protest about the lack of safety.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/65871942

[mike]

Did you see the statement from the race director?
"Les filles ont des exigences qui ne sont pas en adéquation avec leur niveau(...)Je me dis que ça ne vaut pas le coup d'organiser une course pour voir tous ces mois d'efforts ruinés pour des caprices d'enfants gâtés."

which google translate has as:
The girls have requirements that are not in line with their level (...) I tell myself that it is not worth organizing a race to see all these months of efforts ruined for the whims of spoiled children.

I just dont have the words to express my anger.  I've heard similar views from old farts about the women's boat race compared to the mens, but never in public - surely this has to have consequences?

[T42]

Now imagine the scandal if a TdF rider came face-to-face with a car on the way down from a col.  That twat needs some re-education.

[Mr Larrington]

If only Bethany (13) was someone other than a figment of my imagination…

[rafletcher]

Now imagine the scandal if a TdF rider came face-to-face with a car on the way down from a col.  That twat needs some re-education.

Plenty of (most?) road races in the UK take place on open roads though. But not, I suspect, with the calibre of Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio riding in them. And as for “we can’t close the roads” every commune seems to be able to do that ad-hoc for the towns race.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

From what I know about the Pyrennean roads from doing the Raid a couple of times, l can’t imagine racing on them in a peloton. Crazy, what are they thinking? But it seems that there is opposition to women cycling at top level, perhaps an unwillingness to share. 

[MattH]

Just watched these over the last couple of days. Some really sphincter tightening moments with live traffic, uncovered junctions (a big roundabout with only one joining road having a moto marshal holding traffic, town centres with no-one holding side streets), a moto stopped in a spectacularly bad position at the side of the road on a 90 degree bend right where riders would swing wide etc.

It seems as though they simply didn't have enough marshals, static or moto. A rolling road closure can work very well, but you need a lot of bikes to do it properly - as an indication, for the big ones in the UK there's about 60. You also need the peloton to help the motos; I saw one bit, 10km before they stopped, where there was a line of motos up alongside the bunch on a wide open road, and the front bit of the bunch spread across and weren't moving sideways to let them through (which, generalising, does seem to be a bit more of an issue in women's races). Don't let the motos through, you don't get hazards ahead covered. But there could be lots of things going on there; earlier incidents could well be affecting the mindset of the racers and moto pilots, and everything goes into a downward spiral once you don't feel you're working together on the same team.

The big fail seems to be that going through a road junction or place of any size, especially the finish town, you'd expect there to be static marshals covering all the side roads - which didn't appear to be present. For the finish town you'd also have had parking restrictions in place, and vehicles being towed if left there. It all seems to come down to the organiser not spending the money to have a big enough marshalling team in place, or not having the experience to know how to properly manage a rolling closed road (early enough to have time to clear traffic, not too early as that makes drivers trying to go about their daily business grumpy and uses too many marshals, knowing how to deal with vehicles that leak onto the route as you won't be able to cover every single driveway - it's a complex thing).

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

In 2009 I watched the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale at the summit of the Col Du Tourmalet.  All the traffic had been stopped, including us on our bikes.  Loads of gendarmes keeping things under control. It was very impressive, but nothing like the Tour de France in terms of spectators or the Caravane. 

Cycling last year in the Alpes, the amount of traffic was astonishing, huge numbers of motorbikes and high end sports cars and plenty of HGVs struggling up the inclines.  I wouldn't be surprised if traffic levels have risen very considerably since 2009.

[rogerzilla]

Sounds like the half-arsed rolling road closures they used to have on the Tour of Britain. I remember some old fart managing to drive onto the course and causing a crash.  Adri van der Poel went apeshit.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cycling-rogue-driver-stuns-riders-1382578.html

[Peter]

Just read that, Roger.  Coming down into Ambleside - had they come down Kirkstone and maybe The Struggle, do you know?

[rogerzilla]

Not sure.  I saw the highlights (or lowlights) on TV.  It effectively killed off the ToB for many years and made the UK a joke for bike racing.