Tuarts said:
A lot of cycling fans really twisted. This is the 'Hardest-Giro-in-Memory' - now its the Hardest-Giro-in-Memory minus one mountain. Get over it. The expectations and demand of some people are unrealistic...then wonder why so many dope...
Listen, simply because we disagree doesn't make me twisted, nor showing a disturbing attitude.
Cycling has a long long history of races on terrain much worse than anything riders face these days,
with no support at all. I don't want to go back to those days, but at the same time, risk is simply part and parcel of the sport, daily.
I simply think that cycling is not something where every rider has the right to keep up with the bunch
regardless. I think it is a sport where riders overcome the challenges ahead of them
to the best of their abilities. If that means they need to slow down more than others on some stretches because they have not got the skills for it... so be it. That is exactly what I want to see.
It is a dangerous sport, day in day out. Every mass sprint is potentially lethal, and it is amazing that we are talking about next to no fatalities in the sport.
But to me it is on the rider to adapt their riding to the environment they are in, and if you are on a descent that looks scary,
deal with it [to use your words]. Everyone can pick a speed that is safe for them. arguably, the more obvious it is that it is tricky, the safer it is, as people sharpen up. It might be less surprising that Wouter died on a stretch that
appeared less dangerous.
I don't say they should just chuck everything at folk, but what they started with here, and with what was put in place on top, cycling is really losing part of its attraction, to me, if we are talking comfortable motorways only.
I think that today's sacrifice had far less to do with real safety, and far more with the risks that the team directors don't want to face any more. They hate losing their recently acquired grip on 'unforeseeable eventualities'. And it is packaged more often than not as a 'safety issue, for the easy sell.
It looks like we judge this differently, where the balance of acceptable risk and personal responsibility falls. Deal with it
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