"I prefer to pay the fine than risk ending up under another car" - Domenico Pozzovivo continues to encounter issues after retiring
Cycling
Riding a bike as a duo, side-by-side, is a regular situation for cyclists on the road, including for safety reasons. Domenico Pozzovivo, who retired from cycling only a couple of months ago, was fined whilst riding with UAE Team Emirates' Diego Ulissi because of this but in the wake of Remco Evenepoel's accident, he reassures that he would always choose that over another car crash.
Pozzovivo shared this with TuttoBiciWeb: “They followed us for a while, as if they were escorting us. They wanted to check that I stayed on the left side of the road and once they made sure that I was, they signaled for us to follow them to the nearest station.”
The Italian veteran will have in memory too well compatriots such as Michele Scarponi and most recently Davide Rebellin who have trafically lost their life after being hit by vehicles on the road. Pozzovivo is well aware of the risks pro cyclist go through and is not willing to sacrifice this safety aspect.
“The problem is not the fine but, as I explained to the Carabinieri, cyclists are too often grazed by cars who come too close. And for that reason I prefer to always ride side-by-side with the person accompanying me to increase my visibility, my visible ‘mass’," he explains. Someone like him, specially, who has experience such accidents in the past, will know too well what it can lead to...
“I have already been hit several times, and I do not intend to take any more risks," he affirms. "As long as I ride a bike, I will always ride two abreast. This law needs to be changed to what they do in Great Britain and other places, where it’s legally permitted to ride side by side. I prefer to pay the fine than risk ending up under another car.”
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- no kidding. i remember when the pro peloton had the really edgy, nasty tone to it. many will want to blame armstrong for that but it went back WAAAYYYY before him. hinault presided over a culture like that, too, and others before him. it really sucked because amateur racers would emulate the pros and when i got into the sport i remember thinking “wow, bicycle racers are the biggest a**holes on the planet.” i’m not sure what caused the pro culture to change, but that change has been cemented by the greats of the sport — pogacar, van der poel, van aert, on and on — being great SPORTSMEN who are much more inclined to congratulate than hate each other. some may miss the old “get your hate on” days. i do not.OCexile12-01-2025
- Honestly, it's not just ProTeams that are arguing this: so are fans like me. I'd love to see more feisty teams struggling for points going at it against each other. I'd love to see a Cancellara team and a Contador team (what happened to them?!) up against the biggies. I'd love to see more wins like Castrillo in the Vuelta (his first was fun, his second was great!). But I also recognize that the two tier system requires that some teams fear a loss of benefit, and others seek a gain of benefit. If everyone has the benefit, is it as important to compete for it? Cycling is weird, that's my conclusion.RidesHills12-01-2025
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