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RIP Antoine Demoitié

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Re: Antoine Demoitié in Critical Condition

Gigs_98 said:
I just can't believe this is happening. You know, there are motorcycle collisions like GVA in San Sebastian last year which are simply annoyingly but this is just unbelievable. Even the race organizers now have to see that they have to reduce the number of motos. They can't ignore it any longer.
Even though the GVA one was perhaps more avoidable a collision than this one, there's also ones like the Sagan one in the Vuelta which was just totally unnecessary. The bolded is key. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is the Dan Wheldon moment. The Indycar Series had safety issues around oval racing for some time, and they'd had some lucky escapes, just as we've had in cycling with moto/cyclist collisions. The handling of the motos and their increasing numbers has become more and more of an issue recently, and there have been a lot more collisions in the last couple of years than I can ever remember before. But just like with the Indycars, once it becomes clear in the worst possible way what the consequences are, you can't put it off anymore. Maybe the incident was unavoidable and Demoitié was just the unlucky one. But if there are any lessons to learn, we'd better learn them before anybody else has to pay this price.

Not that that will be any consolation to Antoine's family, friends or loved ones, nor should it be of course.
 
Apr 10, 2011
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Re: Antoine Demoitié in Critical Condition

Libertine Seguros said:
Gigs_98 said:
I just can't believe this is happening. You know, there are motorcycle collisions like GVA in San Sebastian last year which are simply annoyingly but this is just unbelievable. Even the race organizers now have to see that they have to reduce the number of motos. They can't ignore it any longer.
Even though the GVA one was perhaps more avoidable a collision than this one, there's also ones like the Sagan one in the Vuelta which was just totally unnecessary. The bolded is key. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is the Dan Wheldon moment. The Indycar Series had safety issues around oval racing for some time, and they'd had some lucky escapes, just as we've had in cycling with moto/cyclist collisions. The handling of the motos and their increasing numbers has become more and more of an issue recently, and there have been a lot more collisions in the last couple of years than I can ever remember before. But just like with the Indycars, once it becomes clear in the worst possible way what the consequences are, you can't put it off anymore. Maybe the incident was unavoidable and Demoitié was just the unlucky one. But if there are any lessons to learn, we'd better learn them before anybody else has to pay this price.

Not that that will be any consolation to Antoine's family, friends or loved ones, nor should it be of course.


That's the thing though, throughout our society, we don't learn .We await the most dramatic event to change something..

It took Andrei Kivilev's death to make the UCI and riders agree on helmets. I guess we could see something similar being done here. Even if the moto wasn't fully to blame, from reports it seems it was very unlucky event.
 
Mar 14, 2009
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Demoitié crashed with four other riders in Sainte-Marie-Cappel with 115 kilometres remaining, during the race’s brief loop across the border into France. As Demoitié lay on the ground, he was then reportedly struck by a following race motorbike.

Demoitié was initially taken to hospital in Ypres, before being quickly transferred to the intensive care unit of the university hospital in Lille due to the gravity of his condition.

After Gent-Wevelgem finished on Sunday evening, the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team issued an update on social media describing Demoitié’s condition as “extremely serious” and reporting that his wife and family had come to the hospital in Lille.

Shortly after midnight local time, AFP and Directvelo.com reported that Demoitié had died as a result of his injuries. "The rider died. An inquiry is under way to determine the circumstances," Frederic Evrard, a spokesman for the Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional gendarmerie in France, told AFP.

A native of Liège, Demoitié signed for Wanty-Groupe Gobert during the winter after spending three seasons at the Wallonie-Bruxelles team. His most notable victory came at the Tour du Finistère in 2014. Demoitié had begun the 2016 season well, placing third on the opening stage of Etoile des Bessèges and second at Dorpenomloop Rucphen two weeks ago.
 
Mar 14, 2009
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RIP and condolences to the family ...

Dear UCI please lower the number of motorbikes and cars ... people are getting hurt and dying. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wake up and do something about it.
 
Re:

Jancouver said:
RIP and condolences to the family ...

Dear UCI please lower the number of motorbikes and cars ... people are getting hurt and dying. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wake up and do something about it.

This is where the problem lies. The motorbikes are for press, promoting the races for media outlets. There are also cars following with corporate sponsors and clients. The UCI doesn't want to limit the amount of vehicles for this reason, it will go against promoting the sport.

The UCI said they would do something last September. Since then, silence. Which is not unusual for the current admistrators. I'm sure we'll get a Sagan selfie tomorrow and not a "serious" response to this issue.
 

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