This year's Tour de Pologne is marked by UCI's test of racing without radios. For every supporter of the less controlled racing, there is a hater pointing out disadvantages. Today, there has been another incident fueling Richard Plugge's narrative against radio ban.
"It was chaos today, without radios. UCI cannot continue with this radio ban. It turns the race into a complete farce like we saw in the olympics where riders cannot call the car for basic assistance (in case of a mechanical)," Plugge complains on X.
Today we saw Cofidis' Nicolas Debeaumarché crash hard on a descent in latter parts of the stage. The French rider clearly wasn't in a very good shape, however it has taken a substantial amount of time before he was treated. "Hopefully no one was too badly hurt today," Plugge added.
In the meantime, Cofidis confirmed Debeaumarché to be in a stable condition, with initial examination indicating at several vertebral fractures from the crash. The 26-year-old was transported to a hospital where his condition will be further re-assessed. We hope for a swift recovery.
The UCI president David Lappartient briefly reponded to Plugge's comments, noting that the manager of Visma | Lease a Bike isn't as concerned about rider safety as he makes it sound: "Hi Richard, You are caught in the act of fake news! Today's crashes at the Tour de Pologne have nothing to do with the absence of radios and you know it. The riders were taken care of according to standards. Our priority at the UCI is safety. You want to keep the radios on to give instructions, not for safety. Take responsibility for it! Let’s continue working together!"
It was chaos today, without radios. @UCI_cycling cannot continue with this radio ban. It turns the race into a complete farce like we saw in the olympics where riders cannot call the car for basic assistance (in case of a mechanical). Hopefully no one was too badly hurt today.
There is a rider who crashed into the ditch in Pologne with as far as I can tell no one taking care of him for at least a minute. If this is due to no radios, I'm going to lose my mind
