“Do we have to wait for another death?” Pascal Chanteur, president of the union of French cyclistshas requested the convening of a ‘General Assembly on Security’ after another serious setback in Itzulia (Back to the Basque Country).
“We cannot continue like this,” insisted the former professional racer, who specifically criticized the use of disc brakes and the “lobby” of bicycle manufacturers. “Do we have to wait for a cyclist to have both legs amputated and lose his life in a race for people to be aware? If that’s the idea, we’re not far from it,” he added.
On Thursday, a dozen riders ended up in hospital after a terrifying fall on the 4th stage of Itzulia, including two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel.
“I request, and I will officially convene, a general security meeting to make clear proposals,” declared Pascal Chanteur. “I will include the teams that hire and are responsible for their employees. Visma lost Vingegaard for a few weeks. Imagine if it happened fifteen days before the Tour de France. It is a tragedy for them. And it could be has happened. worse”.
For the representative of the cyclists, “the disc brake is not suitable for road racing” because it allows “emergency, brutal and instinctive braking” that makes you “go away immediately. The same goes for the gear ratios used. Today Today, we use 56x10s. They run 80 km/h on the downhill stretches. When you crash, you have no way to get out of there,” he added.
In the face of “increasingly avant-garde equipment,” he points the finger at bicycle manufacturers. “When disc brakes were introduced, we asked them to round the edges of the disc because they were too sharp. It was a war. They told us it cost a dollar a disc and that they sold ten million. But that’s not my problem. My problem is that you shouldn’t cut off a leg, a finger or a hand. The decision is up to us if we want to remain immobile and at the mercy of the industry,” he continued.
“And it’s up to them to decide if they want to continue these accidents, or even the deaths, or if they want to continue their work. They show us pseudostudies to prove us wrong when they know full well that we . right,” he concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
