How E3 Saxo Classic wants to be the safest race of the year
Anyone who wants to organize a cycling race at WorldTour level needs a safety manager, a safety expert with a UCI diploma. At the E3 Saxo Classic, that is Seppe Seynhaeve. He followed a UCI training in Switzerland and has been coordinating the safety aspect in Harelbeke for eight years now. "For us, this is a very important theme," he says.
"We are lucky that we can organise in Flanders. Cycling is part of our culture and you can see that. I also see competitions in other countries and other regions, but nowhere is so much attention paid to safety as here. Our fellow organisers in the Flemish spring are also working hard on this. You can safely say that we are a pioneer in Flanders when it comes to safety."
Everything starts with the course. Even though the basis has been the same for a few years, the men of the E3 Saxo Classic start with the drawing work in August: large, wide roads in the first hours of the race, only then does it go to the Flemish Ardennes. The summer and autumn are also the period in which the municipalities are contacted: where is work being done, where could a problem arise?
"Everything is mapped out," says Seynhaeve. "Then we will actively ask the municipalities whether they can remove traffic calming measures: posts, small islands, mobile road narrowing... That is of course not possible everywhere, but the layout of the road is being adapted for the race in 15 places." Seynhaeve can often be found on the course in the period November-December. For three days, he captures every potentially dangerous point. Literally: he photographs every road narrowing, every sharp bend, every railway crossing, every fast descent, every speed bump, every refuge island, etc.
Because the course is more than 200 kilometres long, this results in an enormous pile of information. Processing this information again takes a few days. The final result goes to the team leaders. In Veloviewer, a specialised website/app for setting out routes, they can check and study all the obstacles that await them on Friday.
Seynhaeve: "You have to imagine it as a kind of Waze or Google Maps in which you can pinpoint every relevant situation."
In the weeks before the race, the course is explored again, this time with all the race drivers. These are the men and women who drive the cars of the race director, the jury and the commissioners on Friday, a total of about twenty people. "On the three Sundays before the E3 Saxo Classic, we all ride the entire course together. So that no one is surprised on the day of the race."
The day before the race, all sports directors receive another safety briefing. "No boring PowerPoint, but a video in which we show the most important passages again. With race footage from previous editions. For example, this year there is a fragment in which Pogacar flies off the bend. We are focusing hard on proactive communication."
Two hours before the race, a final check of the course is carried out. This inspection team rides the route from start to finish and has to solve the last problems. "Every year you have these things: arrows that have disappeared, a dead rabbit on the road, mud on the road... We check it all. Our team has a shovel and brush with them, but there is also a sweeper on standby all day."
Just like most organisers in the spring, the E3 Saxo Classic works together with Boplan, a West Flemish company specialising in security equipment. Think of boarding, crash pads, warning totems and so on. "Because we were the first to do business with them, they always launch their new products with us as a first", says Seynhaeve.
This year, these are new chevron banners (herringbone pattern) and new integrated gates that should make the barriers at the finish even safer. "It is also very important that everything has the same layout: that makes it easier for riders to spot dangerous spots."
Crowd management is also becoming increasingly important. In other words: spreading out the crowd. The organisers of the E3 Saxo Classic noticed that in recent years, it had become dangerously busy at some places on the course because too many fans and VIPs were gathering. The Taaienberg, the Paterberg and the Oude Kwaremont are such places. "We felt that sooner or later it could go wrong, which is why we split up our VIP formulas, so that we can now spread all those people over seven new locations."
The three hills in question are also cordoned off with crash barriers. A team of thirty people arranges this on Thursday evening and night. On the day of the race, stewards are present at the critical points.
There are approximately 650 signallers on the course who have to close off around 900 streets to prevent 'normal' traffic from entering the course. The major intersections are manned by the police.
There are 25 motorcycles in the race, each with a pilot and mobile signaller. They signal dangerous points with yellow hazard flags and whistles. They also carry extra banners with which they can warn of exceptional incidents. Think of a fall or a car breaking down on the course.
The motorcyclists use the 'way in/way out' system (a pre-determined shortcut) to repeatedly join the course. At the busiest places, they are accompanied by the police. The organisation is deploying more than 50 buses to get all the VIPs on and along the course. Each bus is accompanied by two motorcyclists and is equipped with a track & trace system. This allows you to check at any time who is where and whether any problems arise. The opening car (before the race), the race director's car (in the race) and the closing car (behind the race) are also equipped with a GPS tracker.
The race is monitored all day long from the CP-Ops in Harelbeke, or the 'operations command post'. This is a control room where Seynhaeve, together with the police, fire brigade and medical services, follows everything on and around the course on dozens of TV screens.
"We constantly have all possible TV images that are made, both on the motorbike and from the helicopter. We have mounted an extra GoPro on the race director's car. It is a spider's web to die for", says Seynhaeve. "Because every year a situation arises somewhere that requires action: think of blown over barriers or a farmers' protest. You can avoid and prevent a lot, but not everything."