Women's Tour - question

[morzov]

My wife and I went to see the Women's Tour of Britain on Weds between Clearwell and Lydney. The stage was Tewkesbury to Gloucester.

The riders all came through - 3 leaders and peloton about 30 secs behind then the full cavalcade of cars, Motos etc.

The police bike that had closed the road junction we were at then took off and traffic started flowing again.

As we were leaving - a good ( minutes after that a cyclist came through. We did a double take as she was definitely one of the competitors. Not sure who but she had race number and UAE kit on. Furthermore there was no cars or Motos with her.

Just curious what the rule is here. Obviously a rolling road block can't wait indefinitely and this woman now faced the prospect of cycling to Gloucester in traffic with apparently no back up

[morzov]

Couldn't edit post for some reason but should say she was a good 5 minutes behind!

[thirdcrank]

I can't speak for this race, but in normal circumstances the last official vehicle on the road should be the sag wagon/ broom wagon / voiture balai whatever you like to call it. In theory, that ensures that no rider is stranded. With a rolling road closure, as you say, traffic cannot be held forver and in those circumstances, it should be signalled to riders still in the race that they are no longer protected by the police escort and should ride accordingly.

[morzov]

Thanks. Didn't see a broom wagon but presume there must have been one and that she was in radio contact with team,

I've seen this in Tour de France but there the roads are closed. But I guess we deal with traffic everyday!

[awavey]

there was definitely a broom wagon in use, and its literally a van with a broom taped to the back of it as crazy as that sounds, think it was the Fenwicks bike sponsors van again this year, and it should be the absolute last vehicle on the road even if a rider or riders become detached from the rolling road blocks & team/course cars, it should stay behind following them, more so just to keep an eye and work out where all the riders are, though literally yes they are then left to fend for themselves on open roads at that stage, though its not ideal obviously.

I have seen them keep a couple of motos back to kind of add a bit of protection in the past, but its a resource thing ultimately and they only have so many motos to deploy for the main bunch riders safety, and prioritise shutting the road ahead of the race, rather than keeping it closed behind for all the riders , as youd just end up stretching the numbers of motos you need till the system breaks down, they have to keep them rolling through with the main bunch even if some riders cant keep up with the pace.

Similar with the team cars, its womens wwt, they only have a handful of vehicles, so cant afford to drop one of their cars back if just a rider is in trouble and let them chase back on, and Im not sure how good those race radios are at much distance.

based on stage 3 results actually suspect that wasnt even the last rider at that stage, as there were a couple of groups really who look like they got distanced and a group who finished 16mins down on stage 3, including two UAE riders, Sophie Wright being one of them, Alessia Patuelli the other, who seemed to both have had rotten stage 3/stage 4 days based on where they finished, so not sure if both had problems or maybe UAE sent a rider back to give the other a wheel to chase and thats why they both finished at the back.

think it was Clacton stage finish in 2015, there were a group of riders, including Jo Rowsell, who became detached at some point from the peloton, and might even have taken a wrong turning at one point, but came in 25mins down, after the podium ceremony had been completed and had started dismantling the finish area, and theyd had to ride for a while without moto protection, but the broom wagon was behind them and radioing in to race control where they were.

[Dingdong]

If you missed the sag wagon, or if it missed you. There's often no option but to cycle back to HQ, by it does seem odd, given this is a National event.

[mattheus]

If you missed the sag wagon, or if it missed you. There's often no option but to cycle back to HQ, by it does seem odd, given this is a National event.

There are lots of lovely stories from Paris Roubaix of this happening. It's one of the few events where the pros really care about finishing, no matter how far behind.

[thirdcrank]

Looking back there were some pretty grim episodes in this country

Empire Stores - a Bradford-based mail order catalogue company - revived the marathon London-Holyhead race but changed it to London Bradford. (My failing memory had it down as Holyhead - Bradford.) Anyway, it was a big distance with a small field and my memory is also of riders who abandoned having to get lifts to safety in spectators' cars

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk/index. ... for%201979.

Another memory is that the career of Australian rider Phil Anderson was cut short in a collision with a car which had evaded the rolling police escort in the Kellogs or similar (It's not mentioned in his wikipedia entry so I may be wrong about the rider involved)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Anderson_(cyclist)

I do remember that Sean Yates as a senior rider had a frank discussion about poor rider safety with the race director who had hospitality VIPs on board and that terminated the sponsorship deal - briefly mentioned here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_of_B ... nd_PruTour