Itzulia Basque Country 2024, April 1-6

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I'm pretty sure there was no contact.

Remco was braking hard on his rear wheel while going over those tree roots, trying to make the curve this way. You can see his rear wheel moving erroneously. The Trek rider tried, at the same time, to round the curve without braking too much, resulting in his front wheel sliding out.
What Mihai is suggesting is impossible, imo.

Judging by the head-on camera, in every frame there is enough space between Remco and any rider around him at any time before the Lidl Trek rider crash, to say something like that.
I think y'all are right. After my first watch I thought someone hit his rear wheel which straightened him up...but on repeat watches I don't see contact.

The bunny-hop over the ditch was impressive! If he'd have landed it even more so...
 
Now that it seems like everyone has made it out of there alive, I would also like to point out that the situation is not comparable to Mäder's fatal accident at Suisse last year.

- At Suisse, it seems highly unlikely that the crash was caused by unnecessary risks given how far back Mäder/Sheffield were. Here, the peloton entered the curve at what I would say was an irresponsible pace.
- At Suisse, the road surface was in excellent condition. Here, it clearly wasn't. Error number one by the organisers of Itzulia that doesn't apply to Suisse.
- At Suisse, any rider could have seen that missing the curve would mean falling down the mountain, whereas the hazards in this curve were not visible at all for the riders. Obstacles invisible to the riders, but visible to the organiser should be given additional attention. Error number two by the organisers of Itzulia that doesn't apply to Suisse.
- At Suisse, the concrete structure that ended up killing Mäder was ~100 metres away from the road, and therefore almost impossible for the organisers to be conscious of. Here, the ditch and boulders were right next to the road. Error number three by the organisers of Itzulia that doesn't apply to Suisse.
- At Suisse, the descent in question had been used over and over in the exact same position relative to the finish line without major incident, whereas I can't find the last time (if there is any) they went through the upper part (where they crashed) of this descent.

For these reasons, nobody was to blame for Mäder's death, whereas (the severity of) this crash was probably preventable on multiple counts. Thank f*ck it seems the consequences of these errors are not quite so severe.

Now, was the descent inherently too much? No, but this curve needed more attention than it got for the risk levels to be adequate.
 
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Not sure you can call it 'no unnecessary risk' when you miss a corner in a high speed decent.

But this crash is mostly down to riders racing like maniacs in a location where they really shouldn't have.
Exactly this.

I can't understand why they raced like a maniacs in the descent after doing the climb in a slow pace.

It would be more safe going in a fast pace in the climb, for doing a more safe descent with a restrit group.
 
Kirby actually made a good point in recognizing that the ambulances were still on site and not racing down the road to get someone to the hospital ASAP
In the US and Canada, when you have a rolling enclosure, you need so many police and ambulance support depending on the number of riders, here you have all the ambulances filled with broken and injured riders and because it's uphill, race officials decide to continue w way, way fewer emergency medical services..

Also Karel the BH rider was getting shelled coming up the climb, race went neutral, he slurps a bunch of gels and sugar bomb bottles and now he is racing for the podium!!! Go figure!!!
 

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