Add to that the incredibly bad Belgian roads and road design, combining all kinds of traffic, congestion, and absolutely selfish and dangerous driving style of all road users… no offense but riding 50 kmh in a city center is often asking for trouble. I am a rider myself but half of the time I see incidents that could have been avoided by lowering speed and being careful.
I have familiarity with roads in and outside of St. Niklaas, and roads near Frankfurt Germany and realizing that perspectives are all entirely relative.
Drivers in most of Europe and head and shoulders above training and skills of US drivers, would challenge you on road conditions, I will grant you that there are millions of kilometers of design flaws in the roads, but you also have many different types of roads. In the US, we use what is called eminent domain, if a house, structure, tree is too close to proposed road, government comes and gives you a check and they mow it down, shortly after. In Belgium, Germany and France I have ridden and raced on roads that looked skinny for bicycle, motorcycle, car travel and forget trucks or larger SUVs, pinch points now but the road was wide enough when people were using bikes and wagons.
You want to see bad roads ,design and civil engineering, come to Mexico. I have seen Remco training videos, UAE and Visma, and they often have a moto,scooter or car following when it's A large group, Remco maybe rolling w some music, solo just chugging didn't think he needs a follow, lots of rides you see they have a seat bag and are prepared to fix their own bike.
A super common response to racing in Europe from lots of Americans is how skinny some roads are, and just as often how much more aware and respectful European drivers are..
If you want urban riding chaos go to Argentina or India, need a diaper under your bike shorts!!
Too many Remco recovery photos from the hospital bed!! He is giving Wout and Julian Alaphilippe a run for hospital photo podium.