Lesser known races 2025 edition

[staubsauger]

Is the first sentence accurately translated below?

“What happened today is that 25 traffic controllers during the neutralization didn’t show up,” Rondhuis explains. “That’s why the neutralization was messy. From kilometre zero we fully secured the route. We had several situations in which other road users ignored stop signals from traffic controllers. They were halted on the side of the road, then started riding again, halted again, and yet they continued riding. That is the sign, the red line: that without police, this cannot work.”

Yes. I think he sums it up accurately as well. If a police officers order gets ignored twice they will put the driver in custody. In Germany the then upcoming lawsuit could be enough to lose your drivers license due to character non-aptitude.

Dunno if that exists in the Netherlands as well or in Denmark respectively.

Volunteer in the end don't have the power to force drivers to just and simply can be ignored by querulent persons!

 

[theyoungest]

My suspicious nature towards my neighbours (Essex man in general, not the immediate ones, they're mainly decent) is that drivers would all be on-line congratulating each other and claiming credit for having been part of the cancellation. Is that happening on Dutch twitter?

I don't think it's hostility on the part of Dutch drivers. It's indifference. They just don't care that there's a cycling race going on.

 

[search]

In Mentougou, young Quaranta won the sprint today.

More interestingly, Mario Aparicio was disqualified due to inappropriate behaviour, and damaging the image of the sport - apparently for posting a pig emoji next to the Chinese flag on his Strava

There was a big outrage on Chinese social media, and I honestly have no idea about the exact symbolic meaning of the pig in either China nor Spain, but this seems a bit overblown. Maybe there was more to it than just that post, though.

as it turned out, Aparicio was not only thrown out of the race, but is also not allowed to enter China anymore. He himself said that the pig emoji was meant as a joke, referring to his team mate winning the stage, but this apparently didn't help.

Expulsan de China y le prohíben la entrada de por vida a un ciclista español por poner el icono de un cerdo junto a la bandera del país | El Correo

Mario Aparicio, corredor del Burgos BH, la lía en su perfil de Strava y la empresa organizadora decide descalificarle de la carrera por violar «el reglamento del torneo y

www.elcorreo.com

edit: SafeBet had already posted it in the General News thread. Missed that.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Fwiw the driver who came closest to plowing into the peloton after ignoring multiple stop signs was driving one of those hideously oversized pickup trucks (as per Cees Bol). Triple the chance of a crash by any rider with that pickup being fatal compared to a crash with a normal car (source) and that's before you consider the fact that the peloton was flying down a descent with the pickup heading in the opposite direction when they ran into it. As far as in-race incidents that don't result in accidents go, that has to about as scary as it gets.

 

[kingjr]

as it turned out, Aparicio was not only thrown out of the race, but is also not allowed to enter China anymore. He himself said that the pig emoji was meant as a joke, referring to his team mate winning the stage, but this apparently didn't help.

Expulsan de China y le prohíben la entrada de por vida a un ciclista español por poner el icono de un cerdo junto a la bandera del país | El Correo

Mario Aparicio, corredor del Burgos BH, la lía en su perfil de Strava y la empresa organizadora decide descalificarle de la carrera por violar «el reglamento del torneo y

www.elcorreo.com

Reminds me of UBS chief economist Paul Donovan, who made the following innocuous remark about the impact of a 2019 outbreak of swine flu in China:

Paul Donovan, global chief economist of the Swiss bank's wealth management department since 2016, said in a podcast that higher consumer prices due to sickness among pigs would matter to a Chinese pig.

"Does it matter? It matters if you are a Chinese pig. It matters if you like eating pork in China," he said in the podcast on Wednesday, the transcript of which was posted on UBS's official website and later taken down.
His comments caused a stir among Chinese finance professionals, who said they were "distasteful and racist".

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/ubs-global-chief-economist-grilled-in-china-for-comment-on-pigs-idUSKCN1TE1NX/

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I don't think it's hostility on the part of Dutch drivers. It's indifference. They just don't care that there's a cycling race going on.

Maybe I am being even more suspicious now, but 25 people not showing up sounds like a very high number? Out of how many?

And these were volunteers? If from the local cycling commnunity, that would be very disappointing level of commitment. But if just from volunteers, might it have been some kind of organised undermining of the event: "Let's all put our names forward, then not show to leave them in the lurch"

Or am I just very low in my opinion of humanity today?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Maybe I am being even more suspicious now, but 25 people not showing up sounds like a very high number? Out of how many?

And these were volunteers? If from the local cycling commnunity, that would be very disappointing level of commitment. But if just from volunteers, might it have been some kind of organised undermining of the event: "Let's all put our names forward, then not show to leave them in the lurch"

Or am I just very low in my opinion of humanity today?

The organisers said they had about 50 traffic controllers today, so that would be a third of the people who had volunteered not showing up.

 

[search]

from the statement, to me it sounded like they were only missing for the neutral part. Maybe it was only some kind of miscommunication.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Oh well, shite happens. Hopefully the Dutch can get the last two stages organised. Its essentially two glorified crit races but with decent obstacles along the way.

Stage 4 (Saturday:

Stage 5 (Sunday):