Etoile de Besseges owner: "If the riders do not let the gendarmes' motorcycles pass during a race, the gendarmes cannot secure the race"
Cycling
Organizing and managing a cycling race is a daunting task, and when this is with events of a lower category with tighter budgets and voluntary personnel, it can become hellish. That seems to be what happened with the Etoile de Bessèges, where the race owner stands up for it's team amidst a very controversial few days.
On both stages 2 and 3 there were moving vehicles on the road. On the second occasion, the race was neutralized, and in the aftermath several teams left the race with immediate effect. "If next year, we are not there, that's how it is. The riders must understand that it is not easy for us, the organizers. Apart from ASO, it is difficult to privatize the roads," race owner Claudine Fangille told MidiLibre.
This work relies on the police that is, during the whole day, overtaking the peloton, closing roads ahead, and then repeating that cycle over and over. Fangille argues the police had difficulty going through the peloton, which led to a lack in front to close all roads. "We cannot. This morning, at the sports directors' meeting, they told us that the riders were not listening. And if the riders do not let the gendarmes' motorcycles pass during a race, the gendarmes cannot secure the race. Otherwise, we end up with this, with what happened".
It is a chaotic situation in which there are losses on both sides, but it seems unanimous that the race's reputation has taken a big hit. But the event isn't profitable either, and Fangille's words do not assure the race's future:
"I told them this morning, they must take responsibility. This is the 55th edition, we cannot take any more responsibility. We, with the Étoile, do not win anything. We are there to make the riders race. If we are not there next year, personally, it does not matter, I will have one less worry".
"We have to tell ourselves that at some point, we do everything we can in terms of security," she states. "We have the same group of police officers as last year, they are not novices. The police stopped yesterday's car twice, it restarts. What do we do? Apart from putting someone on each road?" Even with the race still ongoing, albeit skinned of many of it's stars, it may see the queen stage cut due to risks of strong snow in the region".
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Etoile de Besseges is cursed. 🙈 Today, they will have terrible weather with lots of rain and wind before Mont Bouquet where snow is expected! I don't think the World Tour teams regret leaving the race yesterday...#EDB2025 pic.twitter.com/8NvRTC8aeB
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) February 8, 2025
I’ve seen this first hand. You can be behind a rider screaming at them to move over, and they pretend you are not there. The UCI could use their yellow cards for this. Promoters maybe are hiring too few motor marshals. And, The riders and DS’s need to grow up
This is true, but, having ben on both sides, there arr situations where as a rider you genuinely can’t hear much behind you for all the white noise (wind, engine, tires, etc.) and that’s without even having earphones. But seriously, this gendarmes explanation sound like a cheap cop (yes, pun intended) out. You cannot possibly expect any motorised gendarme, no matter how skilled, to manage road junctions up ahead if they are also falling behind, that totally unserious. If the gendarmes are to control traffic, there needs to be one staying up front at ALL (absolute bare minimum, even 2 is dodgy, 3 relaying would be considered workable unless of course there are unmanned crossings every few hundred meters. Can you imagine they would move around like that with no plan when escorting heads of state or sensitive prisoners, NEVER happens, for good reason, you cannot prepare for what’s up ahead that way. Heck, in the TdF TTs EVERY rider is accompanied by at least one gendarme.
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- You are completely wrongvappaxbipmv05-04-2025
- Tadej has a little more chance. It will be an exciting race and the most important thing is that no one gets hurt.
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".maria2024202405-04-2025
- Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025