Tour of Korea - multiple moto crashes

[my username is flish]

No mention on CN but Lee Rodgers on David McCann's team gave a good report on the stage. Nasty stuff...best wishes to Dave and hope he recovers soon.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...ed-by-multiple-crashes-sketchy-support_215643

 

[wirral]

I live in East Asia and can so believe this.

Ambulances with flashing lights, sirens, tons of stickers and not a single piece of equipment inside. Seen that. Commonplace.

Completely untrained "paramedics" but with groovy "paramedic" boiler suits. Seen that. Commonplace.

The thing with Harley Davidsons even if you can barely ride them. Seen that.

 

[ElChingon]

Wow! If ever a race to just bail on en mass this would be it, too bad the guy didn't take pictures of the fake med kit or the supposed doctor doing nothing, plenty of good material to send to McQuack to prove his globalization is failing the riders at the very least.

 

[Michele]

Been to Korea plenty of times and its full of those heavy and not agyle motorbikes.

 

[pugdog]

What a complete disgrace, and what a humiliation for the UCI. The Tour of Korea should be suspended until they get their house in order, and the UCI should discriminate a little bit in their plans for world dominance. If for no other reason, the plans to have a breakaway league may not be such a bad idea if this kind of inhuman behavior is stopped.

 

[Savant12]

I like in South Korea so news like this about motorbike riders does not surprise me. Most of them ride on the roads without respect for traffic laws or other road users. Having them in a professional bike race would terrify me.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

What does this have to do with globalization of cycling? This is a 2.2 race which lacks any importance but has some tradition as being the longest stage race in Asia. There's not the UCI to blame. ****ty organisation of races is to be found in Europe as well

When old men like Kirsipuu and McCann, which aren't good enough anymore for the European racing circuit, decide to spend their retirement in Asian races, it's their choice.

 

[pugdog]

What does this have to do with globalization of cycling? This is a 2.2 race which lacks any importance but has some tradition as being the longest stage race in Asia. There's not the UCI to blame. ****ty organisation of races is to be found in Europe as well

When old men like Kirsipuu and McCann, which aren't good enough anymore for the European racing circuit, decide to spend their retirement in Asian races, it's their choice.

Did you read what happened? If not, here is the link again. It's UCI who rate the races and are therefore ultimately responsible for ensuring the standards of the race organisation.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...ed-by-multiple-crashes-sketchy-support_215643

 

[williamp78]

Driving a harley is just stupid at a bike race; they're just not manoeuvrable enough however you could possibly blame inexperience for that one (though not really a valid excuse).

However the bit at the end with the complete lack of medical staff is an absolute disgrace!! Say that happened at the tour and the yellow jersey went into convulsions and george hincapie lost his thumb; the tour would be cancelled and their licence immediately revoked!

Kudos to david mccann for still thinking of his team. I still remember the commonwealth games road race where he fought tooth and nail with world tour riders and just missed out on a medal for northern ireland and this was just a few days after winning bronze in the team pursuit.

 

[AntonioRossi]

This is a major screw up by the UCI. They should be really ashamed of themselves by allowing a race like this to go though without even having real doctors.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

When old men like Kirsipuu and McCann, which aren't good enough anymore for the European racing circuit, decide to spend their retirement in Asian races, it's their choice.

The race is in South Korea, not Cambodia or Burma. South Korea is not some impoverished hole in the ground. If the report is accurate, there really isn't much excuse for a national tour to be so chaotic.

 

[jsem94]

This is just too shameful.

 

[CobbleStoner]

Pat McQuaid MUST go, along with the points system, 'globalazation' efforts, etc...
stop trying to change cycling, it was a beautiful sport for hundreds of years, stop f-ing with it please

 

[my username is flish]

Thankfully Dave McCann's injuries are not as bad as originally feared, but still an almighty clusterfukk of a stage...

http://www.stickybottle.com/races-r...mccann-into-surgery-and-out-of-tour-of-korea/

 

[Magnus]

This is a major screw up by the UCI. They should be really ashamed of themselves by allowing a race like this to go though without even having real doctors.

It seems pretty clear that the UCI didn't allow this race to not have doctors.

Is it up to the UCI to check the diploma of every doctor in a .2 race?

 

[Magnus]

Pat McQuaid MUST go, along with the points system, 'globalazation' efforts, etc...
stop trying to change cycling, it was a beautiful sport for hundreds of years, stop f-ing with it please

What has Pat McQuaid got to do with this?

 

[Caruut]

What has Pat McQuaid got to do with this?

As the head of the organisation sanctioning the event, then he ultimately bears some responsibility for the safety of those competing. If the ToK promoters aren't going to provide race doctors, they shouldn't be organising races - it is up to the UCI to make sure that they don't. Now, when you consider the fact that McQuaid's tenure has been marked by a top-down drive to expand the sport into new markets, and there is an almighty ****-up in one of those markets, it is fair to ask "Were they so blinded by an ambition to expand the sport that they failed to ensure that those organising the races were going to do so properly?". I think it's pretty clear what the answer is.

 

[Magnus]

As the head of the organisation sanctioning the event, then he ultimately bears some responsibility for the safety of those competing. If the ToK promoters aren't going to provide race doctors, they shouldn't be organising races - it is up to the UCI to make sure that they don't. Now, when you consider the fact that McQuaid's tenure has been marked by a top-down drive to expand the sport into new markets, and there is an almighty ****-up in one of those markets, it is fair to ask "Were they so blinded by an ambition to expand the sport that they failed to ensure that those organising the races were going to do so properly?". I think it's pretty clear what the answer is.

So you're saying that nobody outside Europe should be allowed to race bikes

Afaik KSPO not the UCI is organizer of ToK.
The first edition of ToK was years before McQuaid was appointed president of the UCI. If you read the article there appeared to be doctors and ambulances, but the doctors wasn't doctors.
And let's get facts straight. It wasn't sanctioned by the UCI that the race could be held without medical staff.

The ToK clearly didn't live up to the UCI regulations. If they did I could understand why someone would blaim UCI. If the UCI doesn't take any actions against the organizers to ensure they live up to the regulations in future editions of the race I could understand the criticism.

But blaming McQuaid that a race organizer didn't follow the regulations is like blaming Obama that some idiot in the US didn't follow the law.

 

[Michele]

Korean media reported that there were no injuries in this year TdK.

 

[wirral]

Korean media reported that there were no injuries in this year TdK.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt but for others who don't know, media in all East Asian countries print, often verbatim, the buffed, polished and spun press releases of the organisations that hold the power and often, little else.

They do not print and, indeed, self-censor anything which may embarrass, annoy or damage the reputation of the organisations that hold the power.

 

[my username is flish]

Korean media reported that there were no injuries in this year TdK.

I see. Velonews and all the Irish cycling media must be wrong, Dave McCann must not have got his thumb cut off and Jaan Kirsipuu must not have got cleaned out of it by a race motorbike....

As wirral says above, a wee smidgeon of censorship at play perhaps?

Tough going down there in the minor leagues though. As someone said earlier, if half of this happened in a major race there would be uproar.

 

[CobbleStoner]

What has Pat McQuaid got to do with this?

well, at least we now know what 'name' McQuaid goes by on this forum... I wasn't saying that you are directly responsible for that one 'doctor' not having his credintials, you are responsible for the whole tone of cycling now, with the stupid radio bans increasing the danger factor for riders, the points system that encourages crashes and risk taking, failed and useless witch-hunting for dope you don't understand, your whole 'globalazation' effort is a massive fail (this is just the latest example of that fail) cycling has been fine for a long time, Americans, Australians, Asians, South Americans, etc... have all broken into pro cycling in the past without you, and they will continue once you finally resign in disgrace. now go!

 

[woodie]

So you're saying that nobody outside Europe should be allowed to race bikes

Afaik KSPO not the UCI is organizer of ToK.
The first edition of ToK was years before McQuaid was appointed president of the UCI. If you read the article there appeared to be doctors and ambulances, but the doctors wasn't doctors.
And let's get facts straight. It wasn't sanctioned by the UCI that the race could be held without medical staff.

The ToK clearly didn't live up to the UCI regulations. If they did I could understand why someone would blaim UCI. If the UCI doesn't take any actions against the organizers to ensure they live up to the regulations in future editions of the race I could understand the criticism.

But blaming McQuaid that a race organizer didn't follow the regulations is like blaming Obama that some idiot in the US didn't follow the law.

The UCI should be ensuring that the events they sanction are living up to a certain standard, that means checking the officials and staff have the proper credentials. I'm sorry but there is no excuse for not checking the credentials of the medical staff who are the difference between life and death.

If the UCI are sanctioning these events, they need to have a hand in the organisation and implementation to ensure they meet the standards expected.

Maybe blaming McQuaid is a little too far but the UCI needs to take some responsibility and take the appropriate actions to fix the problems, alongside the event organisers.

 

[Magnus]

well, at least we now know what 'name' McQuaid goes by on this forum... I wasn't saying that you are directly responsible for that one 'doctor' not having his credintials, you are responsible for the whole tone of cycling now, with the stupid radio bans increasing the danger factor for riders, the points system that encourages crashes and risk taking, failed and useless witch-hunting for dope you don't understand, your whole 'globalazation' effort is a massive fail (this is just the latest example of that fail) cycling has been fine for a long time, Americans, Australians, Asians, South Americans, etc... have all broken into pro cycling in the past without you, and they will continue once you finally resign in disgrace. now go!

ps. nice one victimizing yourself with the Hitler reference

Lol. We can certainly agree that the radio-ban and the dope witch-hunt are massive fails. I don't know about you but I also feel that the increasingly rigid bike regulations are crap as well.
Re globalization I'm not sure where I stand. I mean, I think it's a positive thing with pro-teams from 'new' cycling-countries. On the other hand there are calender and practical problems with races all over the world.

Either way I don't see the ToK as a symptom of the globalization trend. Was there even any pro-continental teams?
Had this happened at the Tour of Beijing it could have made an argument against Pat and the globalization stuff, but ToK isn't Pat's baby....

 

[Magnus]

that means checking the officials and staff have the proper credentials

I'm sorry but I honestly don't think this is practically adoptable.
How many UCI races are there worldwide?
How is the UCI supposed to check that each driver/moto-rider has a valid driving permit? I mean, you could, theoretically, have the organizers send in scanned copies of the permits, but how do you then check that it actually is the persons on the permits that conducts the vehicles? That the permits isn't falsifications? In a country where the press reports that there was no incidents in the ToK 2012.
Clearly I'd expect the UCI to take some kind of action against the ToK organizers at this point, but I frankly don't think it's a good idea for the UCI to build a system so rigid that it can be assured with absolute certainty that people in ambulances who claim they're doctors actually are doctors. Do you wan't the UCI to conduct random testing of race doctors to see if they actually have medical experience?

IMO what happened in ToK is an anomaly and should be treated as such.